CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA - THE STROMATA, OR MISCELLANIES - BOOK VII

CHAP. l.--THE GNOSTIC A TRUE WORSHIPPER OF GOD, AND
UNJUSTLY CALUMNIATED BY UNBELIEVERS AS AN ATHEIST.

It is now time to show the Greeks that the Gnostic
alone is truly pious; so that the philosophers, learning
of what description the true Christian is, may condemn
their own stupidity in rashly and inconsiderately persecuting
the [Christian] name, and without reason calling those
impious who know the true God. And clearer arguments
must be employed, I reckon, with the philosophers,
so that they may be able, from the exercise they have
already had through their own training, to understand,
although they have not yet shown themselves worthy
to partake of the power of believing.
The prophetic sayings we shall not at present advert
to, as we are to avail ourselves of the Scriptures
subsequently at the proper places. But we shall point
out summarily the points indicated by them, in our
delineation of Christianity, so that by taking the
Scriptures at once (especially as they do not yet comprehend
their utterances), we may not interrupt the continuity
of the discourse. But after pointing out the things
indicated, proofs shall be shown in abundance to those
who have believed.
But if the assertions made by us appear to certain
of the multitude to be different from the Scriptures
of the Lord, let it be known that it is from that source
that they have breath and life; and taking their rise
from them, they profess to adduce the sense only, not
the words. For further treatment, not being seasonable,
will rightly appear superfluous. Thus, not to look
at what is urgent would be excessively indolent and
defective; and "blessed, in truth, are they who,
investigating the testimonies of the Lord, shall seek
Him with their whole heart."[1] And the law and
the prophets witness of the Lord.
It is, then, our purpose to prove that the Gnostic
alone is holy and pious, and worships the true God
in a manner worthy of Him; and that worship meet for
God is followed by loving and being loved by God. He
accordingly judges all excellence to be honourable
according to its worth; and judges that among the objects
perceived by our senses, we are to esteem rulers, and
parents, and every one advanced in years; and among
subjects of instruction, the most ancient philosophy
and primeval prophecy; and among intellectual ideas,
what is oldest in origin, the timeless and unoriginated
First Principle, and Beginning of existences--the Son--from
whom we are to learn the remoter Cause, the Father,
of the universe, the most ancient and the most beneficent
of all; not capable of expression by the voice, but
to be reverenced with reverence, and silence, and holy
wonder, and supremely venerated; declared by the Lord,
as far as those who learned were capable of comprehending,
and understood by those chosen by the Lord to acknowledge;
"whose senses," says the apostle, "were
exercised.''[2]
The service of God, then, in the case of the Gnostic,
is his soul's continual study[3] and occupation, bestowed
on the Deity in ceaseless love. For of the service
bestowed on men, one kind is that whose aim is improvement,
the other ministerial. The improvement of the body
is the object of the medical art, of the soul of philosophy.
Ministerial service is rendered to parents by children,
to rulers by subjects.
Similarly, also, in the Church, the elders attend
to the department which has improvement for its object;
and the deacons to the ministerial. In both these ministries
the angels[4] serve God, in the management of earthly
affairs; and the Gnostic himself ministers to God,
and

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exhibits to men the scheme of improvement, in the way
in which he has been appointed to discipline men for
their amendment. For he is alone pious that serves
God rightly and unblameably in human affairs. For as
that treatment of plants is best through which their
fruits are produced and gathered in, through knowledge
and skill in husbandry, affording men the benefit accruing
from them; so the piety of the Gnostic, taking to itself
the fruits of the men who by his means have believed,
when not a few attain to knowledge and are saved by
it, achieves by his skill the best harvest. And as
Godliness (<greek>qeo</greek>-<greek>prepeia</greek>)
is the habit which preserves what is becoming to God,
the godly man is the only lover of God, and such will
he be who knows what is becoming, both in respect of
knowledge and of the life which must be lived by him,
who is destined to be divine (<greek>qep</greek>),
and is already being assimilated to God. So then he
is in the first place a lover of God. For as he who
honours his father is a lover of his father, so he
who honours God is a lover of God.
Thus also it appears to me that there are three
effects of gnostic power: the knowledge of things;
second, the performance of whatever the Word suggests;
and the third, the capability of delivering, in a way
suitable to God, the secrets veiled in the truth.
He, then, who is persuaded that God is omnipotent,
and has learned the divine mysteries from His only-begotten
Son, how can he be an atheist (<greek>apeos</greek>)?
For he is an atheist who thinks that God does not exist.
And he is superstitious who dreads the demons; who
deifies all things, both wood and stone; and reduces
to bondage spirit, and man who possesses the life of
reason.[1]

CHAP. II.--THE SON THE RULER AND SAVIOUR OF ALL.

To know[2] God is, then, the first step of faith;
then, through confidence in the teaching of the Saviour,
to consider the doing of wrong in any way as not suitable
to the knowledge of God.
So the best thing on earth is the most pious man;
and the best thing in heaven, the nearer in place and
purer, is an angel, the partaker of the eternal and
blessed life. But the nature of the Son, which is nearest
to Him who is alone the Almighty One, is the most perfect,
and most holy, and most potent, and most princely,
and most kingly, and most beneficent. This is the highest
excellence, which orders all things in accordance with
the Father's will, and holds the helm of the universe
in the best way, with unwearied and tireless power,
working all things in which it operates, keeping in
view its hidden designs. For from His own point of
view the Son of God is never displaced; not being divided,
not severed, not passing from place to place; being
always everywhere, and being contained nowhere; complete
mind, the complete paternal light; all eyes, seeing
all things, hearing all things, knowing all things,
by His power scrutinizing the powers. To Him is placed
in subjection all the host of angels and gods; He,
the paternal Word, exhibiting[3] a the holy administration
for Him who put [all] in subjection to Him.
Wherefore also all men are His; some through knowledge,
and others not yet so; and some as friends, some as
faithful servants, some as servants merely. This is
the Teacher, who trains the Gnostic by mysteries, and
the believer by good hopes, and the hard of heart by
corrective discipline through sensible operation. Thence
His providence is in private, in public, and everywhere.
And that He whom we call Saviour and Lord is the
Son of God, the prophetic Scriptures explicitly prove.
So the Lord of all, of Greeks and of Barbarians, persuades
those who are willing. For He does not compel him[3]
who (through choosing and fulfilling, from Him, what
pertains to laying hold of it the hope) is able to
receive salvation from Him.
It is He who also gave philosophy to the Greeks
by means of the inferior angels. For by an ancient
and divine order the angels are distributed among the
nations.[5] But the glory of those who believe is "the
Lord's portion." For either the Lord does not
care for all men; and this is the case either because
He is unable (which is not to be thought, for it would
be a proof of weakness), or because He is unwilling,
which is not the attribute of a good being. And He
who for our sakes assumed flesh capable of suffering,
is far from being luxuriously indolent. Or He does
care for all, which is befitting for Him who has become
Lord of all. For He is Saviour; not [the Saviour] of
some, and of others not. But in proportion to the adaptation
possessed by each, He has dispensed His beneficence
both to Greeks and Barbarians, even to those of them
that were predestinated, and in due time called, the
faithful and elect. Nor can He who called all equally,
and assigned special honours to those who have believed
in a specially excellent way, ever envy any. Nor can
He who is the Lord of all, and serves above all the
will of the good and almighty Father, ever be hindered

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by another. But neither does envy touch the Lord, who
without beginning was impassible; nor are the things
of men such as to be envied by the Lord. But it is
another, he whom passion hath touched, who envies.
And it cannot be said that it is from ignorance that
the Lord is not willing to save humanity, because He
knows not how each one is to be cared for. For ignorance
applies not to the God who, before the foundation of
the world, was the counsellor of the Father. For He
was the Wisdom "in which" the Sovereign God
"delighted."[1] For the Son is the power
of God, as being the Father's most ancient Word before
the production of all things, and His Wisdom. He is
then properly called the Teacher of the beings formed
by Him. Nor does He ever abandon care for men, by being
drawn aside from pleasure, who, having assumed flesh,
which by nature is susceptible of suffering, trained
it to the condition of impossibility.
And how is He Saviour and Lord, if not the Saviour
and Lord of all? But He is the Saviour of those who
have believed, because of their l wishing to know;
and the Lord of those who have not believed, till,
being enabled to confess him, they obtain the peculiar
and appropriate boon which comes by Him.
Now the energy of the Lord has a reference to the
Almighty; and the Son is, so to speak, an energy of
the Father. Therefore, a hater of man, the Saviour
can never be; who, for His exceeding love to human
flesh, despising not its susceptibility to suffering,
but investing Himself with it, came for the common
salvation of men; for the faith of those who have chosen
it, is common. Nay more, He will never neglect His
own work, because man alone of all the other living
creatures was in his creation endowed with a conception
of God. Nor can there be any other better and more
suitable government for men than that which is appointed
by God.
It is then always proper for the one who is superior
by nature to be over the inferior, and for him who
is capable of managing aught well to have the management
of it assigned to him. Now that which truly rules and
presides is the Divine Word and His providence, which
inspects all things, and despises the care of nothing
belonging to it.
Those, then, who choose to belong to Him, are those
who are perfected through faith. He, the Son, is, by
the will of the Almighty Father, the cause of all good
things, being the first efficient cause of motion--a
power incapable of being apprehended by sensation.
For what He was, was not seen by those who, through
the weakness of the flesh, were incapable of taking
in [the reality]. But, having assumed sensitive flesh,
He came to show man what was possible through obedience
to the commandments. Being, then, the Father's power,
He easily prevails in what He wishes, leaving not even
the minutest point of His administration unattended
to. For otherwise the whole would not have been well
executed by Him.
But, as I think, characteristic of the highest power
is the accurate scrutiny of all the parts, reaching
even to the minutest, terminating in the first Administrator
of the universe, who by the will of the Father directs
the salvation of all; some overlooking, who are set
under others, who are set over them, till you come
to the great High Priest. For on one original first
Principle, which acts according to the [Father's] will,
the first and the second and the third depend. Then
at the highest extremity of the visible world is the
blessed band of angels;[2] and down to ourselves there
are ranged, some under others, those who, from One
and by One, both are saved and save.
As, then, the minutest particle of steel is moved
by the spirit of the Heraclean stone[3] when diffused[4]
over many steel rings; so also, attracted by the Holy
Spirit, the virtuous are added by affinity to the first
abode, and the others in succession down to the last.
But those who are bad from infirmity, having fallen
from vicious insatiableness into a depraved state,
neither controlling nor controlled, rush round and
round, whirled about by the passions, and fall down
to the ground.
For this was the law from the first, that virtue
should be the object of voluntary choice. Wherefore
also the commandments, according to the Law, and before
the Law, not given to the upright (for the law is not
appointed for a righteous man[5]) , ordained that he
should receive eternal life and the blessed prize,
who chose them.
But, on the other hand, they allowed him who had
been delighted with vice to consort with the objects
of his choice; and, on the other hand, that the soul,
which is ever improving in the acquisition[6] of virtue
and the increase of righteousness, should obtain a
better place in the universe, as tending in each step
of advancement towards the habit of impassibility,
till "it come to a perfect man,"[7] to the
excellence at once of knowledge and of inheritance.
These salutary revolutions, in accordance with the
order of change, are distinguished both by times, and
places, and honours, and cognitions, and heritages,
and ministries, according to the

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particular order of each change, up to the transcendent
and continual contemplation of the Lord in eternity.
Now that which is lovable leads, to the contemplation
of itself, each one who, from love of knowledge, applies
himself entirely to contemplation. Wherefore also the
Lord, drawing the commandments, both the first which
He gave, and the second, from one fountain, neither
allowed those who were before the law to be without
law, nor permitted those who were unacquainted with
the principles of the Barbarian philosophy to be without
restraint. For, having furnished the one with the commandments,
and the other with philosophy, He shut up unbelief
to the Advent. Whence[1] every one who believes not
is without excuse. For by a different process of advancement,
both Greek and Barbarian, He leads to the perfection
which is by faith.[2]
And if any one of the Greeks, passing over the preliminary
training of the Hellenic philosophy, proceeds directly
to the true teaching, he distances others, though an
unlettered man, by choosing[3] the compendious process
of salvation by faith to perfection.
Everything, then, which did not hinder a man's choice
from being free, He made and rendered auxiliary to
virtue, in order that there might be revealed somehow
or other, even to those capable of seeing but dimly,
the one only almighty, good God--from eternity to eternity
saving by His Son.
And, on the other hand, He is in no respect whatever
the cause of evil. For all things are arranged with
a view to the salvation of the universe by the Lord
of the universe, both generally and particularly. It
is then the function of the righteousness of salvation
to improve everything as far as practicable. For even
minor marten are arranged with a view to the salvation
of that which is better, and for an abode suitable
for people's character. Now everything that is virtuous
changes for the better; having as the proper[4] cause
of change the free choice of knowledge, which the soul
has in its own power. But necessary corrections, through
the goodness of the great overseeing Judge, both by
the attendant angels, and by various acts of anticipative
judgment, and by the perfect judgment, compel egregious
sinners to repent.

CHAP. III.--THE GNOSTIC AIMS AT THE NEAREST LIKENESS
POSSIBLE TO GOD AND HIS SON.

Now I pass over other things in silence, glorifying
the Lord. But I affirm that gnostic souls, that surpass
in the grandeur of contemplation the mode of life of
each of the holy ranks, among whom the blessed abodes
of the gods are allotted by distribution, reckoned
holy among the holy, transferred entire from among
the entire, reaching places better than the better
places, embracing the divine vision not in mirrors
or by means of mirrors, but in the transcendently clear
and absolutely pure insatiable vision which is the
privilege of intensely loving souls, holding festival
through endless ages, remain honoured with the indentity
of all excellence. Such is the vision attainable by
"the pure in heart."[5] This is the function
of the Gnostic, who has been perfected, to have convene
with God through the great High Priest, being made
like the Lord, up to the measure of his capacity, in
the whole service of God, which tends to the salvation
of men, through care of the beneficence which has us
for its object; and on the other side through worship,
through teaching and through beneficence in deeds.
The Gnostic even forms and creates himself; and besides
also, he, like to God, adorns those who hear him; assimilating
as far as possible the moderation which, arising from
practice, tends to impossibility, to Him who by nature
possesses impossibility; and especially having uninterrupted
converse and fellowship with the Lord. Mildness, I
think, and philanthropy, and eminent piety, are the
rules of gnostic assimilation. I affirm that these
virtues "are a sacrifice acceptable in the sight
of God; "[6] heart with Scripture alleging that"[7]
right knowledge is the holocaust of God; each man who
is admitted to holiness being illuminated in order
to indissoluble union.
For "to bring themselves into captivity,"
and to slay themselves, putting to death "the
old man, who is through lusts corrupt," and raising
the new man from death, "from the old conversation,"
by abandoning the passions, and becoming free of sin,
both the Gospel and the apostle enjoin.[8]
It was this, consequently, which the Law intimated,
by ordering the sinner to be cut off, and translated
from death to life, to the impossibility that is the
result of faith; which the teachers of the Law, not
comprehending, inasmuch as they regarded the law as
contentions, they have given a handle to those who
attempt idly to calumniate the Law. And for this reason
we rightly do not sacrifice to God, who, needing

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nothing, supplies all men with all things; but we glorify
Him who gave Himself in sacrifice for us, we also sacrificing
ourselves; from that which needs nothing to that which
needs nothing, and to that which is impassible from
that which is impassible. For in our salvation alone
God delights. We do not therefore, and with reason
too, offer sacrifice to Him who is not overcome by
pleasures, inasmuch as the fumes of the smoke stop
far beneath, and do not even reach the thickest clouds;
but those they reach are far from them. The Deity neither
is, then, in want of aught, nor loves pleasure, or
gain, or money, being full, and supplying all things
to everything that has received being and has wants.
And neither by sacrifices nor offerings, nor on the
other hand by glory and honour, is the Deity won over;
nor is He influenced by any such things; but He appears
only to excellent and good men, who will never betray
justice for threatened fear, nor by the promise of
considerable gifts.
But those who have not seen the self-determination
of the human soul, and its incapability of being treated
as a slave in what respects the choice of life, being
disgusted at what is done through rude injustice, do
not think that there is a God. On a par with these
in opinion, are they who, falling into licentiousness
in pleasures, and grievous pains, and unlooked-for
accidents, and bidding defiance to events, say that
there is no God, or that, though existing, He does
not oversee all things. And others there are, who are
persuaded that those they reckon gods are capable of
being prevailed upon by sacrifices and gifts, favouring,
so to speak, their prof-ligacies; and will not believe
that He is the only true God, who exists in the invariablehess
of righteous goodness.
The Gnostic, then, is pious, who cares first for
himself, then for his neighbours, that they may become
very good. For the son gratifies a good father, by
showing himself good and like his father; and in like
manner the subject, the governor. For believing and
obeying are in our own power.
But should any one suppose the cause of evils to
be the weakness of matter, and the involuntary impulses
of ignorance, and (in his stupidity) irrational necessities;
he who has become a Gnostic has through instruction
superiority over these, as if they were wild beasts;
and in imitation of the divine plan, he does good to
such as are willing, as far as he can. And if ever
placed in authority, like Moses, he will rule for the
salvation of the governed; and will tame wildness and
faithlessness, by recording honour for the most excellent,
and punishment for the wicked, in accordance with reason
for the sake of discipline.
For pre-eminently a divine image, resembling God,
is the soul of a righteous man; in which, through obedience
to the commands, as in a consecrated spot, is enclosed
and enshrined the Leader of mortals and of immortals,
King and Parent of what is good, who is truly law,
and right, and eternal Word, being the one Saviour
individually to each, and in common to all.
He is the true Only-begotten, the express image
of the glory of the universal King and Almighty Father,
who impresses on the Gnostic the seal of the perfect
contemplation, according to His own image; so that
there is now a third divine image, made as far as possible
like the Second Cause, the Essential Life, through
which we live the true life; the Gnostic, as we regard
him, being described as moving amid things sure and
wholly immutable.
Ruling, then, over himself and what belongs to him,
and possessing a sure grasp, of divine science, he
makes a genuine approach to the truth. For the knowledge
and apprehension of intellectual objects must necessarily
be called certain scientific knowledge, whose function
in reference to divine things is to consider what is
the First Cause, and what that "by whom all things
were made, and without whom nothing was made; "[1]
and what things, on the other hand, are as pervasive,
and what is comprehensive; what conjoined, what disjoined;
and what is the position which each one of them holds,
and what power and what service each contributes. And
again. among human things, what man himself is, and
what he has naturally or preternaturally; and how,
again, it becomes him to do or to suffer; and what
are his virtues and what his vices; and about things
good, bad, and indifferent; also about fortitude, and
prudence, and self-restraint, and the virtue which
is in all respects complete, namely, righteousness.
Further, he employs prudence and righteousness in
the acquisition of wisdom, and fortitude, not only
in the endurance of circumstances, but also in restraining[2]
pleasure and desire, grief and anger; and, in general,
to withstand[3] everything which either by any force
or fraud entices us. For it is not necessary to endure
vices and virtues, but it is to be persuaded to bear
things that inspire fear.
Accordingly, pain is found beneficial in the healing
art, and in discipline, and in punishment; and by it
men's manners are corrected to their advantage. Forms
of fortitude are endurance, magnanimity, high spirit,
liberality, and grandeur. And for this reason he neither
meets with the blame or the bad opinion of the multitude;
nor is he subjected to opinions or flatteries. But
in

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the indurance of toils and at the same time[1] in the
discharge of any duty, and in his manly superiority
to all circumstances, he appears truly a man (<greek>anhr</greek>)
among the rest of human beings. And, on the other hand,
maintaining prudence, he exercises moderation in the
calmness of his soul; receptive of what is commanded,
as of what belongs to him, entertaining aversion to
what is base, as alien to him; become decorous and
supramundane,[2] he does everything with decorum and
in order, and transgresses in no respect, and in nothing.
Rich he is in the highest degree in desiring nothing,
as having few wants; and being in the midst of abundance
of all good through the knowledge of the good. For
it is the first effect of his righteousness, to love
to spend his time and associate with those of his own
race both in earth and heaven. So also he is liberal
of what he possesses. And being a lover of men, he
is a hater of the wicked, entertaining a perfect aversion
to all villany. He must consequently learn to be faithful
both to himself and his neighbours, and obedient to
the commandments. For he is the true servant of God
who spontaneously subjects himself to His commands.
And he who already, not through the commandments, but
through knowledge itself, is pure in heart, is the
friend of God. For neither are we born by nature possessing
virtue, nor after we are born does it grow naturally,
as certain parts of the body; since then it would neither
be voluntary nor praiseworthy. Nor is virtue, like
speech, perfected by the practice that results from
everyday occurrences (for this is very much the way
in which vice originates). For it is not by any art,
either those of acquisition, or those which relate
to the care of the body, that knowledge is attained.
No more is it from the curriculum of instruction. For
that is satisfied if it can only prepare and sharpen
the soul. For the laws of the state are perchance able
to restrain bad actions; but persuasive words, which
but touch the surface, cannot produce a scientific
permanence of the truth.
Now the Greek philosophy, as it were, purges the
soul, and prepares it beforehand for the reception
of faith, on which the Truth builds up the edifice
of knowledge.
This is the true athlete--he who in the great stadium,
the fair world, is crowned for the true victory over
all the passions. For He who prescribes the contest
is the Almighty God, and He who awards the prize is
the only-begotten: Son of God. Angels and gods are
spectators; and the contest, embracing all the varied
exercises, is "not against flesh and blood,"[3]
but against the spiritual powers of inordinate passions
that work through the flesh. He who obtains the mastery
in these struggles, and overthrows the tempter, menacing,
as it were, with certain contests, wins immortality.
For the sentence of God in most righteous judgment
is infallible. The spectators[4] are summoned to the
contest, and the athletes contend in the stadium; the
one, who has obeyed the directions of the trainer,
wins the day. For to all, all rewards proposed by God
are equal; and He Himself is unimpeachable. And he
who has power receives mercy, and he that has exercised
will is mighty.
So also we have received mind, that we may know
what we do. And the maxim "Know thyself"
means here to know for what we are born. And we are
born to obey the commandments, if we choose to be willing
to be saved. Such is the Nemesis,s through which there
is no escaping from God. Man's duty, then, is obedience
to God, who has proclaimed salvation manifold by the
commandments. And confession is thanksgiving. For the
beneficent first begins to do good. And he who on fitting
considerations readily receives and keeps the commandments,
is faithful (<greek>pistos</greek>); and
he who by love requites benefits as far as he is able,
is already a friend. One recompense on the part of
men is of paramount importance--the doing of what is
pleasing to God. As being His own production, and a
result akin to Himself, the Teacher and Saviour receives
acts of assistance and of improvement on the part of
men as a personal favour and honour; as also He regards
the injuries inflicted on those who believe on Him
as ingratitude and dishonour to Himself. For what other
dishonour can touch God ? Wherefore it is impossible
to render a recompense at all equivalent to the boon
received from the Lord.
And as those who maltreat property insult the owners,
and those who maltreat soldiers insult the commander,
so also the ill-usage of His consecrated ones is contempt
for the Lord.
For, just as the sun not only illumines heaven and
the whole world, shining over land and sea, but also
through windows and small chinks sends his beams into
the innermost recesses of houses, so the Word diffused
everywhere casts His eye-glance on the minutest circumstances
of the actions of life.

Now, as the Greeks represent the gods as possessing
human forms, so also do they as possessing human passions.
And as each of them

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depict their forms similar to themselves, as Xenophanes
says, "Ethiopians as black and apes, the Thracians
ruddy and tawny;" so also they assimilate their
souls to those who form them: the Barbarians, for instance,
who make them savage and wild; and the Greeks, who
make them more civilized, yet subject to passion.
Wherefore it stands to reason, that the ideas entertained
of God by wicked men must be bad, and those by good
men most excellent. And therefore he who is in soul
truly kingly and gnostic, being likewise pious and
free from superstition, is persuaded that He who alone
is God is honourable, venerable, august, beneficent,
the doer of good, the author of all good things, but
not the cause of evil. And respecting the Hellenic
superstition we have, as I think, shown enough in the
book entitled by us The Exhortation, availing ourselves
abundantly of the history bearing on the point. There
is no need, then, again to make a long story of what
has already been clearly stated. But in as far as necessity
requires to be pointed out on coming to the topic,
suffice it to adduce a few out of many considerations
in proof of the impiety of those who make the Divinity
resemble the worst men. For either those Gods of theirs
are injured by men, and are shown to be inferior to
men on being injured by us; or, if not so, how is it
that they are incensed at those by whom they are not
injured, like a testy old wife roused to wrath?
As they say that Artemis was enraged at the Aetolians
on account of OEneus.[1] For how, being a goddess,
did she not consider that he had neglected to sacrifice,
not through contempt, but out of inadvertence, or under
the idea that he had sacrificed?
And Latona,[2] arguing her case with Athene, on
account of the latter being incensed at her for having
brought forth in the temple, says:--

"Man-slaying
spoils
Torn from the dead you love to see. And these
To you are not unclean. But you regard
My parturition here a horrid thing,
Though other creatures in the temple do
No harm by bringing forth their young."

It is natural, then, that having a superstitious dread
of those irascible [gods], they imagine that all events
are signs and causes of evils. If a mouse bore through
an altar built of clay, and for want of something else
gnaw through an oil flask; if a cock that is being
fattened crow in the evening, they determine this to
be a sign of something.
Of such a one Menander gives a comic description
in The Supersitios Man :--

" B. Most likely, silly fool,
For it was rotten, and you, niggard, you
Would not buy new ones."[3]

It was a clever remark of Antiphon, who (when one regarded
it as an ill omen that the sow had eaten her pigs),
on seeing her emaciated through the niggardliness of
the person that kept her, said, Congratulate yourself
on the omen that, being so hungry, she did not eat
your own children.
"And what wonder is it," says Bion, "if
the mouse, finding nothing to eat, gnaws the bag?"
For it were wonderful if (as Arcesilaus argued in fun)
"the bag had eaten the mouse."
Diogenes accordingly remarked well to one who wondered
at finding a serpent coiled round a pestle: "Don't
wonder; for it would have been more surprising if you
had seen the pestle coiled round the serpent, and the
serpent straight."
For the irrational creatures must run, and scamper,
and fight, and breed, and die; and these things being
natural to them, can never be unnatural to us.

"And many birds beneath the sunbeams walk."

And the comic poet Philemon treats such points in comedy:--

"When I see one who watches who has sneezed,
Or who has spoke; or looking, who goes on,
I straightway in the market sell him off.
Each one of us walks, talks, and sneezes too,
For his own self, not for the citizens:
According to their nature things turn out."

Then by the practice of temperance men seek health:
and by cramming themselves, and wallowing in potations
at feasts, they attract diseases.
There are many, too, that dread inscriptions set
up. Very cleverly Diogenes, on finding in the house
of a bad man the inscription, "Hercules, for victory
famed, dwells here; let nothing bad enter," remarked,
"And how shall the master of the house go in ?"
The same people, who worship every stick and greasy
stone, as the saying is, dreads tufts of tawny wool,
and lumps of salt, and torches, and squills, and sulphur,
bewitched by sorcerers, in certain impure rites of
expiation. But God, the true God, recognises as holy
only the character of the righteous man,--as unholy,
wrong and wickedness.
You may see the eggs,[4] taken from those who have
been purified, hatched if subjected to the necessary
warmth. But this could not take

530

place if they had had transferred to them the sins of
the man that had undergone purification. Accordingly
the comic poet Diphilus facetiously writes, in comedy,
of sorcerers, in the following words:--

"Purifying Proetus' daughters, and their
father
Proetus Abantades, and fifth, an old wife to
boot,
So many people's persons with one torch, one
squill,
With sulphur and asphalt of the loud-sounding
sea,
From the placid-flowing, deep-flowing ocean.
But blest air through the clouds send Anticyra
That I may make this bug into a drone."

For well Menander remarks:[1]--

"Had you, O Phidias, any real ill,
You needs must seek for it a real cure;
Now 'tis not so. And for the unreal ill
I've found an unreal cure Believe that it
Will do thee good. Let women in a ring
Wipe thee, and from three fountains water bring.
Add salt and lentils; sprinkle then thyself.
Each one is pure, who s conscious of no sin."

For in reality there is no other purity but abstinence
from sins. Excellently then Epicharmus says:--

"If a pure mind thou hast,
In thy whole body thou art pure."

Now also we say that it is requisite to purify the
soul from corrupt and bad doctrines by right reason;
and so thereafter to the recollection of the principal
heads of doctrine. Since also before the communication
of the mysteries they think it right to apply certain
purifications to those who are to be initiated; so
it is requisite for men to abandon impious opinion,
and thus turn to the true tradition.

CHAP. V.--THE HOLY SOUL A MORE EXCELLENT TEMPLE THAN
ANY EDIFICE BUILT BY MAN.

For is it not the case that rightly and truly we
do not circumscribe in any place that which cannot
be circumscribed; nor do we shut up in temples made
with hands that which contains all things ? What work
of builders, and stonecutters, and mechanical art can
be holy? Superior to these are not they who think that
the air, and the enclosing space, or rather the whole
world and the universe, are meet for the excellency
of God ?
It were indeed ridiculous, as the philosophers themselves
say, for man, the plaything[3] of God, to make God,
and for God to be the plaything[4] of art; since what
is made is similar and the same to that of which it
is made, as that which is made of ivory is ivory, and
that which is made of gold golden. Now the images and
temples constructed by mechanics are made of inert
matter; so that they too are inert, and material, and
profane; and if you perfect the art, they partake of
mechanical coarseness. Works of art cannot then be
sacred and divine.
And what can be localized, there being nothing that
is not localized ? Since all things are in a place.
And that which is localized having been formerly not
localized, is localized by something. If, then, God
is localized by men, He was once not localized, and
did not exist at all. For the non-existent is what
is not localized; since whatever does not exist is
not localized. And what exists cannot be localized
by what does not exist; nor by another entity. For
it is also an entity. It follows that it must be by
itself. And how shall anything generate itself ? Or
how shall that which exists place itself as to being?
Whether, being formerly not localized, has it localized
itself ? But it was not in existence; since what exists
not is not localized. And its localization being supposed,
how can it afterwards make itself what it previously
was?
But how can He, to whom the things that are belong,
need anything? But were God possessed of a human form,
He would need, equally with man, food, and shelter,
and house, and the attendant incidents. Those who are
like in form and affections will require similar sustenance.
And if sacred (<greek>tp</greek> <greek>ier?n</greek>)
has a twofold application, designating both God Himself
and the structure raised to His honour,[5] how shall
we not with propriety call the Church holy, through
knowledge, made for the honour of God, sacred (<greek>ieron</greek>)
to God, of great value, and not constructed by mechanical
art, nor embellished by the hand of an impostor, but
by the will of God fashioned into a temple ? For it
is not now the place, but the assemblage of the elect,[6]
that I call the Church. This temple is better for the
reception of the greatness of the dignity of God. For
the living creature which is of high value, is made
sacred by that which is worth all, or rather which
has no equivalent, in virtue of the exceeding sanctity
of the latter. Now this is the Gnostic, who is of great
value, who is honoured by God, in whom God is enshrined,
that is, the knowledge respecting God is consecrated.
Here, too, we shall find the divine likeness and the
holy image in the righteous soul, when it is blessed
in being purified and performing blessed deeds. Here
also we shall find that which is localized, and that
which is being localized,--the former in the case of
those who are already Gnostics, and the latter in the
case of those

531

capable of becoming so, although not yet worthy of receiving
the knowledge of God. For every being destined to believe
is already faithful in the sight of God, and set up
for His honour, an image, endowed with virtue, dedicated
to God.

As, then, God is not circumscribed by place, neither
is ever represented by the form of a living creature;
so neither has He similar passions, nor has He wants
like the creatures, so as to desire sacrifice, from
hunger, by way of food. Those creatures which are affected
by passion are all mortal. And it is useless to bring
food to one who is not nourished.
And that comic poet Pherecrates, in The Fugitives,
facetiously represents the gods themselves as finding
fault with men on the score of their sacred rites:--

"When to the gods you sacrifice,
Selecting what our portion is,
'Tis shame to tell, do ye not take,
And both the thighs, clean to the groins,
The loins quite bare, the backbone, too,
Clean scrape as with a file,
Them swallow, and the remnant give
To us as if to dogs? And then,
As if of one another 'shamed,
With heaps of salted barley hide."[1]

And Eubulus, also a comic poet, thus writes respecting
sacrifices:--

"But to the gods the tail alone
And thigh, as if to paederasts you sacrifice."

And introducing Dionysus in Semele, he represents him
disputing:--

"First if they offer aught to me, there are
Who offer blood, the bladder, not the heart
Or caul. For I no flesh do ever eat
That's sweeter than the thigh."[2]

And Menander writes:--

"The end of the loin,
The bile, the bones uneatable, they set
Before the gods; the rest themselves consume."

For is not the savour of the holocausts avoided by the
beasts? And if in reality the savour is the guerdon
of the gods of the Greeks, should they not first deify
the cooks, who are dignified with equal happiness,
and worship the chimney itself, which is closer still
to the much-prized savour?
And Hesiod says that Zeus, cheated in a division
of flesh by Prometheus, received the white bones of
an ox, concealed with cunning art, in shining fat:--

"Whence to the immortal gods the tribes of
men
The victim's white bones on the altars burn."

But they will by no means say that the Deity, enfeebled
through the desire that springs from want, is nourished.
Accordingly, they will represent Him as nourished without
desire like a plant, and like beasts that burrow. They
say that these grow innoxiously, nourished either by
the density in the air, or from the exhalations proceeding
from their own body. Though if the Deity, though needing
nothing, is according to them nourished, what necessity
has He for food, wanting nothing? But if, by nature
needing nothing, He delights to be honoured, it is
not without reason that we honour God in prayer; and
thus the best and holiest sacrifice with righteousness
we bring, presenting it as an offering to the most
righteous Word, by whom we receive knowledge, giving
glory by Him for what[3] we have learned.
The altar, then, that is with us here, the terrestrial
one, is the congregation of those who devote themselves
to prayers, having as it were one common voice and
one mind.
Now, if nourishing substances taken in by the nostrils
are diviner than those taken in by the mouth, yet they
infer respiration. What, then, do they say of God?
Whether does He exhale like the tribe of oaks?[4] Or
does He only inhale, like the aquatic animals, by the
dilatation of their gills? Or does He breathe all round,
like the insects, by the compression of the section
by means of their wings? But no one, if he is in his
senses, will liken God to any of these.
And the creatures that breathe by the expansion
of the lung towards the thorax draw in the air. Then
if they assign to God viscera, and arteries, and veins,
and nerves, and parts, they will make Him in nothing
different from man.
Now breathing together (<greek>sumpnoia</greek>)
is properly said of the Church. For the sacrifice of
the Church is the word breathing as incense[6] from
holy souls, the sacrifice and the whole mind being
at the same time unveiled to God. Now the very ancient
altar in Delos they celebrated as holy; which alone,
being undefiled by slaughter and death, they say Pythagoras
approached. And will they not believe us when we say
that the righteous soul is the truly sacred altar,
and that incense arising from it is holy prayer? But
I believe sacrifices were invented by men to be a pretext
for eating flesh.[7] But without such idolatry he who
wished might have partaken of flesh.
For the sacrifices of the Law express figura-

532

tively the piety which we practise, as the turtle-dove
and the pigeon offered for sins point out that the
cleansing of the irrational part of the soul is acceptable
to God. But if any one of the righteous does not burden
his soul by the eating of flesh, he has the advantage
of a rational reason, not as Pythagoras and his followers
dream of the transmigration of the soul.
Now Xenocrates, treating by himself of "the
food derived from animals," and Polemon in his
work On Life according, to Nature, seem clearly to
say that animal food is unwholesome, inasmuch as it
has already been elaborated and assimilated to the
souls of the irrational creatures.
So also, in particular, the Jews abstain from swine's
flesh on the ground of this animal being unclean; since
more than the other animals it roots up, and destroys
the productions of the ground. But if they say that
the animals were assigned to men--and we agree with
them--yet it was not entirely for food. Nor was it
all animals, but such as do not work. Wherefore the
comic poet Plato says not badly in the drama of The
Feasts:--

"For of the quadrupeds we should not slay
In future aught but swine. For these have flesh
Most toothsome; and about the pig is nought
For us, excepting bristles, mud, and noise."

Whence AEsop said not badly, that "swine squeaked
out very loudly, because, when they were dragged, they
knew that they were good for nothing but for sacrifice."
Wherefore also Cleanthes says, "that they have
soul[1] instead of salt," that their flesh may
not putrefy. Some, then, eat them as useless, others
as destructive of fruits. And others do not eat them,
because the animal has a strong sensual propensity.
So, then, the law sacrifices not the goat, except
in the sole case of the banishment of sins;[2] since
pleasure is the metropolis of vice. It is to the point
also that it is said that the eating of goat's flesh
contributes to epilepsy. And they say that the greatest
increase is produced by swine's flesh. Wherefore it
is beneficial to those who exercise the body; but to
those who devote themselves to the development of the
soul it is not so, on account of the hebetude that
results from the eating of flesh. Perchance also some
Gnostic will abstain from the eating of flesh for the
sake of training, and in order that the flesh may not
grow wanton in amorousness. "For wine," says
Androcydes, "and gluttonous feeds of flesh make
the body strong, but the soul more sluggish."
Accordingly such food, in order to clear understanding,
is to be rejected.
Wherefore also the Egyptians, in the purifications
practised among them, do not allow the priests to feed
on flesh; but they use chickens, as lightest; and they
do not touch fish, on account of certain fables, but
especially on account of such food making the flesh
flabby. But now terrestrial animals and birds breathe
the same air as our vital spirits, being possessed
of a vital principle cognate with the air. But it is
said that fishes do not breathe this air, but that
which was mixed with the water at the instant of its
first creation, as well as with the rest of the elements,
which is also a sign of the permanence of matter.[3]
Wherefore we ought to offer to God sacrifices not
costly, but such as He loves. And that compounded incense
which is mentioned in the Law, is that which consists
of many tongues and voices in prayer,[4] or rather
of different nations and natures, prepared by the gift
vouchsafed in the dispensation for "the unity
of the faith," and brought together in praises,
with a pure mind, and just and right conduct, from
holy works and righteous prayer. For in the elegant
language of poetry,--

"Who is so great a fool, and among men
So very easy of belief, as thinks
The gods, with fraud of fleshless bones and bile
All burnt, not fit for hungry dogs to eat,
Delighted are, and take this as their prize,
And favour show to those who treat them thus,"

though they happen to be tyrants and robbers?
But we say that the fire sanctifies s not flesh,
but sinful souls; meaning not the all-devouring vulgar
fire[6] but that of wisdom, which pervades the soul
passing through the fire.

CHAP. VII.--WHAT SORT OF PRAYER THE GNOSTIC EMPLOYS,
AND HOW IT iS HEARD BY GOD.

Now we are commanded to reverence and to honour
the same one, being persuaded that He is Word, Saviour,
and Leader, and by Him, the Father, not on special
days, as some others, but doing this continually in
our whole life, and in every way. Certainly the elect
race justified by the precept says, "Seven times
a day have I praised Thee."[7] Whence not in a
specified place,[8] or selected temple, or at certain
festivals and on appointed days, but during his whole
life, the Gnostic in every place, even if he be alone
by himself, and wherever he has any of those who have
exercised the like faith, honours God,

533

that is, acknowledges his gratitude for the knowledge
of the way to live.
And if the presence of a good man, through the respect
and reverence which he inspires, always improves him
with whom he associates, with much more reason does
not he who always holds uninterrupted converse with
God by knowledge, life, and thanksgiving, grow at every
step superior to himself in all respects--in conduct,
in words, in disposition? Such an one is persuaded
that God is ever beside him, and does not suppose that
He is confined in certain limited places; so that under
the idea that at times he is without Him, he may indulge
in excesses night and day.
Holding festival, then, in our whole life, persuaded
that God is altogether on every side present, we cultivate
our fields, praising; we sail the sea, hymning; in
all the rest of our conversation we conduct ourselves
according to rule.[1] The Gnostic, then, is very closely
allied to God, being at once grave and cheerful in
all things,--grave on account of the bent of his soul
towards the Divinity, and cheerful on account of his
consideration of the blessings of humanity which God
hath given us.
Now the excellence of knowledge is evidently presented
by the prophet when he says, "Benignity, and instruction,
and knowledge teach me,"[2] magnifying the supremacy
of perfection by a climax.
He is, then, the truly kingly man; he is the sacred
high priest of God. And this is even now observed among
the most sagacious of the Barbarians, in advancing
the sacerdotal caste to the royal power. He, therefore,
never surrenders himself to the rabble that rules supreme
over the theatres, and gives no admittance even in
a dream to the things which are spoken, done, and seen
for the sake of alluring pleasures; neither, therefore,
to the pleasures of sight, nor the various pleasures
which are found in other enjoyments, as costly incense
and odours, which bewitch the nostrils, or preparations
of meats, and indulgences in different wines, which
ensnare the palate, or fragrant bouquets of many flowers,
which through the senses effeminate the soul. But always
tracing up to God the grave enjoyment of all things,
he offers the first-fruits of food, and drink, and
unguents to the Giver of all, acknowledging his thanks
in the gift and in the use of them by the Word given
to him. He rarely goes to convivial banquets of all
and sundry, unless the announcement to him of the friendly
and harmonious character of the entertainment induce
him to go. For he is convinced that God knows and perceives
all things--not the words only, but also the thought;
since even our sense of hearing, which acts through
the passages of the body, has the apprehension [be
longing to it] not through corporeal power, but through
a psychical perception, and the intelligence which
distinguishes significant sounds. God is not, then,
possessed of human form, so as to hear; nor needs He
senses, as the Stoics have decided, "especially
hearing and sight; for He could never otherwise apprehend."
But the susceptibility of the air, and the intensely
keen perception of the angels,[3] and the power which
reaches the soul's consciousness, by ineffable power
and without sensible hearing, know all things at the
moment of thought. And should any one say that the
voice does not reach God, but is rolled downwards in
the air, yet the thoughts of the saints cleave not
the air only, but the whole world. And the divine power,
with the speed of light, sees through the whole soul.
Well! Do not also volitions speak to God, uttering
their voice? And are they not conveyed by conscience?
And what voice shall He wait for, who, according to
His purpose, knows the elect already, even before his
birth, knows what is to be as already existent? Does
not the light of power shine down to the very bottom
of the whole soul; "the lamp of knowledge,"
as the Scripture says, searching "the recesses"?
God is all ear and all eye, if we may be permitted
to use these expressions.
In general, then, an unworthy opinion of God preserves
no piety, either in hymns, or discourses, or writings,
or dogmas, but diverts to grovelling and unseemly ideas
and notions. Whence the commendation of the multitude
differs nothing from censure, in consequence of their
ignorance of the truth. The objects, then, of desires
and aspirations, and, in a word, of the mind's impulses,
are the subjects of prayers. Wherefore, no man desires
a draught, but to drink what is drinkable; and no man
desires an inheritance, but to inherit. And in like
manner no man desires knowledge, but to know; or a
right government, but to take part in the government.
The subjects of our prayers, then, are the subjects
of our requests, and the subjects of requests are the
objects of desires. Prayer, then, and desire, follow
in order, with the view of possessing the blessings
and advantages offered.
The Gnostic, then, who is such by possession, makes
his prayer and request for the truly good things which
appertain to the soul, and prays, he himself also contributing
his efforts to attain to the habit of goodness, so
as no longer to have the things that are good as certain
lessons belonging to him, but to be good.
Wherefore also it is most incumbent on such

534

to pray, knowing as they do the Divinity rightly, and
having the moral excellence suitable to him; who know
what things are really good, and what are to be asked,
and when and how in each individual case. It is the
extremest stupidity to ask of them who are no gods,
as if they were gods; or to ask those things which
are not beneficial, begging evils for themselves under
the appearance of good things.
Whence, as is right, there being only one good God,
that some good things be given from Him alone, and
that some remain, we and the angels pray. But not similarly.
For it is not the same thing to pray that the gift
remain, and to endeavour to obtain it for the first
time.
The averting of evils is a species of prayer; but
such prayer is never to be used for the injury of men,
except that the Gnostic, in devoting attention to righteousness,
may make use of this petition in the case of those
who are past feeling.
Prayer is, then, to speak more boldly, converse
with God. Though whispering, consequently, and not
opening the lips, we speak in silence, yet we cry inwardly.[1]
For God hears continually all the inward converse.
So also we raise the head and lift the hands to heaven,
and set the feet in motion[2] at the closing utterance
of the prayer, following the eagerness of the spirit
directed towards the intellectual essence; and endeavouring
to abstract the body from the earth, along with the
discourse, raising the soul aloft, winged with longing
for better things, we compel it to advance to the region
of holiness, magnanimously despising the chain of the
flesh. For we know right well, that the Gnostic willingly
passes over the whole world, as the Jews certainly
did over Egypt, showing clearly, above all, that he
will be as near as possible to God.
Now, if some assign definite hours for prayer--as,
for example, the third, and sixth, and ninth--yet the
Gnostic prays throughout his whole life, endeavouring
by prayer to have fellowship with God.[3] And, briefly,
having reached to this, he leaves behind him all that
is of no service, as having now received the perfection
of the man that acts by love. But the distribution
of the hours into a threefold division, honoured with
as many prayers, those are acquainted with, who know
the blessed triad of the holy abodes.[4]
Having got to this point, I recollect the doctrines
about there being no necessity to pray, introduced
by certain of the heterodox, that is, the followers
of the heresy of Prodicus. That they may not then be
inflated with conceit about this godless wisdom of
theirs, as if it were strange, let them learn that
it was embraced before by the philosophers called Cyrenaics.[5]
Nevertheless, the unholy knowledge (gnosis) of those
falsely called [Gnostics] shall meet with confutation
at a fitting time; so that the assault on them, by
no means brief, may not, by being introduced into the
commentary, break the discourse in hand, in which we
are showing that the only really holy and pious man
is he who is truly a Gnostic according to the rule
of the Church, to whom alone the petition made in accordance
with the will of God is granted,[6] on asking and on
thinking. For as God can do all that He wishes, so
the Gnostic receives all that he asks. For, universally,
God knows those who are and those who are not worthy
of good things; whence He gives to each what is suitable.
Wherefore to those that are unworthy, though they
ask often, He will not give; but He will give to those
who are worthy.
Nor is petition superfluous, though good things
are given without claim.
Now thanksgiving and request for the conversion
of our neighbours is the function of the Gnostic; as
also the Lord prayed, giving thanks for the accomplishment
of His ministry, praying that as many as possible might
attain to knowledge; that in the saved, by salvation,
through knowledge, God might be glorified, and He who
is alone good and alone Saviour might be acknowledged
through the Son from age to age. But also faith, that
one will receive, is a species of prayer gnostically
laid up in store.
But if any occasion of converse with God becomes
prayer, no opportunity of access to God ought to be
omitted. Without doubt, the holiness of the Gnostic,
in union with [God's] blessed Providence, exhibits
in voluntary confession the perfect beneficence of
God. For the holiness of the Gnostic, and the reciprocal
benevolence of the friend of God, are a kind of corresponding
movement of providence. For neither is God involuntarily
good, as the fire is warming; but in Him the imparting
of good things is voluntary, even if He receive the
request previously. Nor shall he who is saved be saved
against his will, for he is not inanimate; but he will
above all voluntarily and of free choice speed to salvation.
Wherefore also man received the commandments in order
that he might be self-impelled, to whatever he wished
of things to be chosen and to be avoided. Wherefore
God does not do good by necessity, but from His free
choice benefits those

535

who spontaneously turn. For the Providence which extends
to us from God is not ministerial, as that service
which proceeds from inferiors to superiors. But in
pity for our weakness, the continual dispensations
of Providence work, as the care of shepherds towards
the sheep, and of a king towards his subjects; we ourselves
also conducting ourselves obediently towards our superiors,
who take the management of us, as appointed, in accordance
with the commission from God with which they are invested.
Consequently those who render the most free and
kingly service, which is the result of a pious mind
and of knowledge, are servants and attendants of the
Divinity. Each place, then, and time, in which we entertain
the idea of God, is in reality sacred.
When, then, the man who chooses what is right, and
is at the same time of thankful heart, makes his request
in prayer, he contributes to the obtaining of it, gladly
taking hold in prayer of the thing desired. For when
the Giver of good things perceives the susceptibility
on our part, all good things follow at once the conception
of them. Certainly in prayer the character is sifted,
how it stands with respect to duty.
But if voice and expression are given us, for the
sake of understanding, how can God not hear the soul
itself, and the mind, since assuredly soul hears soul,
and mind, mind? Whence God does not walt for loquacious
tongues, as interpreters among men, but knows absolutely
the thoughts of all; and what the voice intimates to
us, that our thought, which even before the creation
He knew would come into our mind, speaks to God. Prayer,
then, may be uttered without the voice, by concentrating
the whole spiritual nature within on expression by
the mind, in un-distracted turning towards God.
And since the dawn is an image of the day of birth,
and from that point the light which has shone forth
at first from the darkness increases, there has also
dawned on those involved in darkness a day of the knowledge
of truth. In correspondence with the manner of the
sun's rising, prayers are made looking towards the
sunrise in the east. Whence also the most ancient temples
looked towards the west, that people might be taught
to turn to the east when facing the images.[1] "Let
my prayer be directed before Thee as incense, the uplifting
of my hands as the evening sacrifice,"[2] say
the Psalms.
In the case of wicked men, therefore, prayer is
most injurious, not to others alone, but to themselves
also. If, then, they should ask and receive what they
call pieces of good fortune, these injure them after
they receive them, being ignorant how to use them.
For they pray to possess what they have not, and they
ask things which seem, but are not, good things.[3]
But the Gnostic will ask the permanence of the things
he possesses, adaptation for what is to take place,
and the eternity of those things which he shall receive.
And the things which are really good, the things which
concern the soul, he prays that they may belong to
him, and remain with him. And so he desires not anything
that is absent, being content with what is present.
For he is not deficient in the good things which are
proper to him; being already sufficient for himself,
through divine grace and knowledge. But having become
sufficient in himself, he stands in no want of other
things. But knowing the sovereign will, and possessing
as soon as he prays, being brought into close contact
with the almighty power, and earnestly desiring to
be spiritual, through boundless love, he is united
to the Spirit.
Thus he, being magnanimous, possessing, through
knowledge, what is the most precious of all, the best
of all, being quick in applying himself to contemplation,
retains in his soul the permanent energy of the objects
of his contemplation, that is the perspicacious keenness
of knowledge. And this power he strives to his utmost
to acquire, by obtaining command of all the influences
which war against the mind; and by applying himself
without intermission to speculation, by exercising
himself in the training of abstinence from pleasures,
and of fight conduct in what he does; and besides,
furnished with great experience both in study and in
life, he has freedom of speech, not the power of a
babbling tongue, but a power which employs plain language,
and which neither for favour nor fear conceals aught
of the things which may be worthily said at the fitting
time, in which it is highly necessary to say them.
He, then, having received the things respecting God
from the mystic choir of the truth itself, employs
language which urges the magnitude of virtue in accordance
with its worth; and shows its results with an inspired
elevation of prayer, being associated gnostically,
as far as possible, with intellectual and spiritual
objects.
Whence he is always mild and meek, accessible, affable,
long-suffering, grateful, endued with a good conscience.
Such a man is rigid, not alone so as not to be corrupted,
but so as not to be tempted. For he never exposes his
soul to submission, or capture at the hands of Pleasure
and Pain. If the Word, who is Judge, call; he, having
grown inflexible, and not indulging a whir the passions,
walks unswervingly where justice advises him to go;
being very well persuaded that all things are managed
consummately well,

536

and that progress to what is better goes on in the case
of souls that have chosen virtue, till they come to
the Good itself, to the Father's vestibule, so to speak,
close to the great High Priest. Such is our Gnostic,
faithful, persuaded that the affairs of the universe
are managed in the best way. Particularly, he is well
pleased with all that happens. In accordance with reason,
then, he asks for none of those things in life required
for necessary use; being persuaded that God, who knows
all things, supplies the good with whatever is for
their benefit, even though they do not ask.
For my view is, that as all things are supplied
to the man of art according to the rules of art, and
to the Gentile in a Gentile way, so also to the Gnostic
all things are supplied gnostically. And the man who
turns from among the Gentiles will ask for faith, while
he that ascends to knowledge will ask for the perfection
of love. And the Gnostic, who has reached the summit,
will pray that contemplation may grow and abide, as
the common man will for continual good health.
Nay, he will pray that he may never fall from virtue;
giving his most strenuous co-operation in order that
he may become infallible. For he knows that some of
the angels, through carelessness, were hurled to the
earth, not having yet quite reached that state of oneness,
by extricating themselves from the propensity to that
of duality.
But him, who from this has trained himself to the
summit of knowledge and the elevated height of the
perfect man, all things relating to time and place
help on, now that he has made it his choice to live
infallibly, and subjects himself to training in order
to the attainment of the stability of knowledge on
each side. But in the case of those in whom there is
still a heavy corner, leaning downwards, even that
part which has been elevated by faith is dragged down.
In him, then, who by gnostic training has acquired
virtue which cannot be lost, habit becomes nature.
And just as weight in a stone, so the knowledge of
such an one is incapable of being lost. Not without,
but through the exercise of will, and by the force
of reason, and knowledge, and Providence, is it brought
to become incapable of being lost. Through care it
becomes incapable of being lost. He will employ caution
so as to avoid sinning, and consideration to prevent
the loss of virtue.
Now knowledge appears to produce consideration,
by teaching to perceive the things that are capable
of contributing to the permanence of virtue. The highest
thing is, then, the knowledge of God; wherefore also
by it virtue is so preserved as to be incapable of
being lost. And he who knows God is holy and pious.
The Gnostic has consequently been demonstrated by us
to be the only pious man.
He rejoices in good things present, and is glad
on account of those promised, as if they were already
present. For they do not elude his notice, as if they
were still absent, because he knows by anticipation
what sort they are. Being then persuaded by knowledge
how each future thing shall be, he possesses it. For
want and defect are measured with reference to what
appertains to one. If, then, he possesses wisdom, and
wisdom is a divine thing, he who partakes of what has
no want will himself have no want. For the imparting
of wisdom does not take place by activity and receptivity
moving and stopping each other, or by aught being abstracted
or becoming defective. Activity is therefore shown
to be undiminished in the act of communication. So,
then, our Gnostic possesses all good things, as far
as possible; but not likewise in number; since otherwise
he would be incapable of changing his place through
the due inspired stages of advancement and acts of
administration.
Him God helps, by honouring him with closer oversight.
For were not all things made for the sake of good men,
for their possession and advantage, or rather salvation?
He will not then deprive, of the things which exist
for the sake of virtue, those for whose sake they were
created. For, evidently in honour of their excellent
nature and their holy choice, he inspires those who
have made choice of a good life with strength for the
rest of their salvation; exhorting some, and helping
others, who of themselves have become worthy. For all
good is capable of being produced in the Gnostic; if
indeed it is his aim to know and do everything intelligently.
And as the physician ministers health to those who
co-operate with him in order to health, so also God
ministers eternal salvation to those who co-operate
for the attainment of knowledge and good conduct; and
since what the commandments enjoin are in our own power,
along with the performance of them, the promise is
accomplished.
And what follows seems to me to be excellently said
by the Greeks. An athlete of no mean reputation among
those of old, having for a long time subjected his
body to thorough training in order to the attainment
of manly strength, on going up to the Olympic games,
cast his eye on the statue of the Pisaean Zeus, and
said: "O Zeus, if all the requisite preparations
for the contest have been made by me, come, give me
the victory, as is right." For so, in the case
of the Gnostic, who has unblameably and with a good
conscience fulfilled all that depends on him, in the
direction of learning, and training, and well-doing,
and pleasing God, the whole contributes to carry salvation
on to perfection. From us, then, are demanded the things
which

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are in our own power, and of the things which pertain
to us, both present and absent, the choice, and desire,
and possession, and use, and permanence.
Wherefore also he who holds converse with God must
have his soul immaculate and stainlessly pure, it being
essential to have made himself perfectly good.
But also it becomes him to make all his prayers
gently with the good. For it is a dangerous thing to
take part in others' sins. Accordingly the Gnostic
will pray along with those who have more recently believed,
for those things in respect of which it is their duty
to act together. And his whole life is a holy festival.[1]
His sacrifices are prayers, and praises, and readings
in the Scriptures before meals, and psalms and hymns
during meals and before bed, and prayers also again
during night. By these he unites himself to the divine
choir, from continual recollection, engaged in contemplation
which has everlasting remembrance.
And what? Does he not also know the other kind of
sacrifice, which consists in the giving both of doctrines
and of money to those who need? Assuredly. But he does
not use wordy prayer by his mouth; having learned to
ask of the Lord what is requisite. In every place,
therefore, but not ostensibly and visibly to the multitude,
he will pray. But while engaged in walking, in conversation,
while in silence, while engaged in reading and in works
according to reason, he in every mood prays.[2] If
he but form the thought in the secret chamber of his
soul, and call on the Father "with unspoken groanings,"[3]
He is near, and is at his side, while yet speaking.
Inasmuch as there are but three ends of all action,
he does everything for its excellence and utility ;
but doing aught for the sake of pleasure,[4] he leaves
to those who pursue the common life.

CHAP. VIII.--THE GNOSTIC SO ADDICTED TO TRUTH AS NOT
TO NEED TO USE AN OATH.

The man of proved character in such piety is far
from being apt to lie and to swear. For an oath is
a decisive affirmation, with the taking of the divine
name. For how can he, that is once faithful, show himself
unfaithful, so as to require an oath; and so that his
life may not be a sure and decisive oath? He lives,
and walks, and shows the trustworthiness of his affirmation
in an unwavering and sure life and speech. And if the
wrong lies in the judgment of one who does and says
[something], and not in the suffering of one who has
been wronged,[5] he will neither lie nor commit perjury
so as to wrong the Deity, knowing that it by nature
is incapable of being harmed. Nor yet will he lie or
commit any transgression, for the sake of the neighbour
whom he has learned to love, though he be not on terms
of intimacy. Much more, consequently, will he not lie
or perjure himself on his own account, since he never
with his will can be found doing wrong to himself.
But he does not even swear, preferring to make averment,
in affirmation by "yea," and in denial by
"nay." For it is an oath to swear, or to
produce[6] anything from the mind in the way of confirmation
in the shape of an oath. It suffices, then, with him,
to add to an affirmation or denial the expression"
I say truly," for confirmation to those who do
not perceive the certainty of his answer. For he ought,
I think, to maintain a life calculated to inspire confidence
towards those without, so that an oath may not even
be asked; and towards himself and those with whom he
associates? good feeling, which is voluntary righteousness.
The Gnostic swears truly, but is not apt to swear,
having rarely recourse to an oath, just as we have
said. And his speaking truth on oath arises from his
accord with the truth. This speaking truth on oath,
then, is found to be the result of correctness in duties.
Where, then, is the necessity for an oath to him who
lives in accordance with the extreme of truth?[8] He,
then, that does not even swear will be far from perjuring
himself. And he who does not transgress in what is
ratified by compacts, will never swear; since the ratification
of the violation and of the fulfilment is by actions;
as certainly lying and perjury in affirming and swearing
are contrary to duty. But he who lives justly, transgressing
in none of his duties, when the judgment of truth is
scrutinized, swears truth by his acts. Accordingly,
testimony by the tongue is in his case superfluous.
Therefore, persuaded always that God is everywhere,
and fearing not to speak the truth, and knowing that
it is unworthy of him to lie, he is satisfied with
the divine consciousness and his own alone[9] And so
he lies not, nor does aught contrary to his compacts.
And so he swears not even when asked for his oath ;
nor does he

538

ever deny, so as to speak falsehood, though he should
die by tortures.

CHAP. IX.--THOSE WHO TEACH OTHERS, OUGHT TO EXCEL IN
VIRTUES.

The gnostic dignity is augmented and increased by
him who has undertaken the first place in the teaching
of others, and received the dispensation by word and
deed of the greatest good on earth, by which he mediates
contact and fellowship with the Divinity. And as those
who worship terrestrial things pray to them as if they
heard, confirming compacts before them; so, in men
who are living images, the true majesty of the Word
is received by the trustworthy teacher; and the beneficence
exerted towards them is carried up to the Lord, after
whose image he who is a true man by instruction creates
and harmonizes, renewing to salvation the man who receives
instruction. For as the Greeks called steel Ares, and
wine Dionysus on account of a certain relation; so
the Gnostic considering the benefit of his neighbours
as his own salvation, may be called a living image
of the Lord, not as respects the peculiarity of form,
but the symbol of power and similarity of preaching.
Whatever, therefore, he has in his mind, he bears
on his tongue, to those who are worthy to hear, speaking
as well as living from assent and inclination. For
he both thinks and speaks the truth; unless at any
time, medicinally, as a physician for the safety of
the sick, he may deceive or tell an untruth, according
to the Sophists.[1]
To illustrate: the noble apostle circumcised Timothy,
though loudly declaring and writing that circumcision
made with hands profits nothing.[2] But that he might
not, by dragging all at once away from the law to the
circumcision of the heart through faith those of the
Hebrews who were reluctant listeners, compel them to
break away from the synagogue, he, "accommodating
himself to the Jews, became a Jew that he might gain
all."[3] He, then, who submits to accommodate
himself merely for the benefit of his neighbours, for
the salvation of those for whose sake he accommodates
himself, not partaking in any dissimulation through
the peril impending over the just from those who envy
them, such an one by no means acts with compulsion.[4]
But for the benefit of his neighbours alone, he will
do things which would not have been done by him primarily,
if he did not do them on their account. Such an one
gives himself for the Church, for the disciples whom
he has begotten in faith; for an example to those who
are capable of receiving the supreme economy of the
philanthropic and God-loving Instructor, for confirmation
of the truth of his words, for the exercise of love
to the Lord. Such an one is unenslaved by fear, true
in word, enduring in labour, never willing to lie by
uttered word, and in it always securing sinlessness;
since falsehood, being spoken with a certain deceit,
is not an inert word, but operates to mischief.
On every hand, then, the Gnostic alone testifies
to the truth in deed and word. For he always does rightly
in all things, both in word and action, and in thought
itself.
Such, then, to speak cursorily, is the piety of
the Christian. If, then, he does these things according
to duty and right reason, he does them piously and
justly. And if such be the case, the Gnostic alone
is really both pious, and just, and God-fearing.
The Christian is not impious. For this was the point
incumbent on us to demonstrate to the philosophers;
so that he will never in any way do aught bad or base
(which is unjust). Consequently, therefore, he is not
impious; but he alone fears God, holily and dutifully
worshipping the true God, the universal Ruler, and
King, and Sovereign, with the true piety.

CHAP. X.--STEPS TO PERFECTION.

For knowledge (gnosis), to speak generally, a perfecting
of man as man, is consummated by acquaintance with
divine things, in character, life, and word, accordant
and conformable to itself and to the divine Word. For
by it faith is perfected, inasmuch as it is solely
by it that the believer becomes perfect. Faith is an
internal good, and without searching for God, confesses
His existence, and glorifies Him as existent. Whence
by starting from this faith, and being developed by
it, through the grace of God, the knowledge respecting
Him is to be acquired as far as possible.
Now we assert that knowledge (gnosis) differs from
the wisdom (<greek>sofia</greek>), which
is the result of teaching. For as far as anything is
knowledge, so far is it certainly wisdom; but in as
far as aught is wisdom, it is not certainly knowledge.
For the term wisdom appears only in the knowledge of
the uttered word.
But it is not doubting in reference to God, but
believing, that is the foundation of knowledge. But
Christ is both the foundation and the superstructure,
by whom are both the beginning and the ends. And the
extreme points, the beginning and the end--I mean faith
and love--are not taught. But knowledge, conveyed from

539

communication through the grace of God as a deposit,
is entrusted to those who show themselves worthy of
it; and from it the worth of love beams forth from
light to light. For it is said, "To him that hath
shall be given:"[1] to faith, knowledge; and to
knowledge, love; and to love, the inheritance.
And this takes place, whenever one hangs on the
Lord by faith, by knowledge, by love, and ascends along
with Him to where the God and guard of our faith and
love is. Whence at last (on account of the necessity
for very great preparation and previous training in
order both to hear what is said, and for the composure
of life, and for advancing intelligently to a point
beyond the righteousness of the law) it is that knowledge
is committed to those fit and selected for it. It leads
us to the endless and perfect end, teaching us beforehand
the future life that we shall lead, according to God,
and with gods; after we are freed from all punishment
and penalty which we undergo, in consequence of our
sins, for salutary discipline. After which redemption
the reward and the honours are assigned to those who
have become perfect; when they have got done with purification,
and ceased from all service, though it be holy service,
and among saints. Then become pure in heart, and near
to the Lord, there awaits them restoration to everlasting
contemplation; and they are called by the appellation
of gods, being destined to sit on thrones with the
other gods that have been first put in their places
by the Saviour.
Knowledge is therefore quick in purifying, and fit
for that acceptable transformation to the better. Whence
also with ease it removes [the soul] to what is akin
to the soul, divine and holy, and by its own light
conveys man through the mystic stages of advancement;
till it restores the pure in heart to the crowning
place of rest; teaching to gaze on God, face to face,
with knowledge and comprehension. For in this consists
the perfection of the gnostic soul, in its being with
the Lord, where it is in immediate subjection to Him,
after rising above all purification and service.
Faith is then, so to speak, a comprehensive knowledge
of the essentials;[2] and knowledge is the strong and
sure demonstration of what is received by faith, built
upon faith by the Lord's teaching, conveying [the soul]
on to infallibility, science, and comprehension. And,
in my view, the first saving change is that from heathenism
to faith, as I said before; and the second, that from
faith to knowledge. And the latter terminating in love,
thereafter gives the loving to the loved, that which
knows to that which is known. And, perchance, such
an one has already attained the condition of "being
equal to the angels."[3] Accordingly, after the
highest excellence in the flesh, changing always duly
to the better, he urges his flight to the ancestral
hall, through the holy septenniad [of heavenly abodes]
to the Lord's own mansion; to be a light, steady, and
continuing eternally, entirely and in every part immutable.
The first mode of the Lord's operation mentioned
by us is an exhibition of the recompense resulting
from piety. Of the very great number of testimonies
that there are, I shall adduce one, thus summarily
expressed by the prophet David: "Who shall ascend
to the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His
holy place? He who is guiltless in his hands, and pure
in his heart; who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity,
or sworn deceitfully to his neighbour. He shall receive
blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his Saviour.
This is the generation of them that seek the Lord,
that seek the face of the God of Jacob."[4] The
prophet has, in my opinion, concisely indicated the
Gnostic. David, as appears, has cursorily demonstrated
the Saviour to be God, by calling Him "the face
of the God of Jacob," who preached and aught concerning
the Spirit. Wherefore also the apostle designates as
"the express image (<greek>karakthra</greek>)
of the glory of the Father "[5] the Son, who taught
the truth respecting God, and expressed the fact that
the Almighty is the one and only God and Father, "whom
no man knoweth but the Son, and he to whom the Son
shall reveal Him."[6] That God is one is intimated
by those "who seek the face of the God of Jacob;"
whom being the only God, our Saviour and God characterizes
as the Good Father. And "the generation of those
that seek Him" is the elect race, devoted to inquiry
after knowledge. Wherefore also the apostle says, "I
shall profit you nothing, unless I speak to you, either
by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophecy, or
by doctrine."[7]
Although even by those who are not Gnostics some
things are done rightly, yet not according to reason;
as in the case of fortitude. For some who are naturally
high-spirited, and have afterwards without reason fostered
this disposition, rush to many things, and act like
brave men, so as sometimes to succeed in achieving
the same things; just as endurance is easy for mechanics.
But it is not from the same cause, or with the same
object; not were they to give their whole body. "For
they have not love," according to the apostle.[8]

540

All the action, then, of a man possessed of knowledge
is right action; and that done by a man not possessed
of knowledge is: wrong action, though he observe a
plan; since it is not from reflection that he acts
bravely, nor does he direct his action in those things
which proceed from virtue to virtue, to any useful
purpose.
The same holds also with the other virtues. So too
the analogy is preserved in religion. Our Gnostic,
then, not only is such in reference to holiness; but
corresponding to the piety of knowledge are the commands
respecting the rest of the conduct of life. For it
is our purpose at present to describe the life of the
Gnostic,[1] not to present the system of dogmas, which
we shall afterwards explain at the fitting time, preserving
the order of topics.

CHAP. XI.--DESCRIPTION OF THE GNOSTIC'S LIFE.

Respecting the universe, he conceives truly and
grandly in virtue of his reception of divine teaching.
Beginning, then, with admiration of the Creation, and
affording of himself a proof of his capability for
receiving knowledge, he becomes a ready pupil of the
Lord. Directly on hearing of God and Providence, he
believed in consequence of ethe admiration he entertained.
Through the power of impulse thence derived he devotes
his energies in every way to learning, doing all those
things by means of which he shall be able to acquire
the knowledge of what he desires. And desire blended
with inquiry arises as faith advances. And this is
to become worthy of speculation, of such a character,
and such importance. So shall the Gnostic taste of
the will of God. For it is not his ears, but his soul,
that he yields up to the things signified by what is
spoken. Accordingly, apprehending essences and things
through the words, he brings his soul, as is fit, to
what is essential; apprehending (e.g.) in the peculiar
way in which they are spoken to the Gnostic, the commands,
"Do not commit adultery, "Do not kill;"
and not as they are understood by other people.[2]
Training himself, then, in scientific speculation,
he proceeds to exercise himself in larger generalizations
and grander propositions; knowing right well that "He
that teacheth man knowledge," according to the
prophet, is the Lord, the Lord acting by man's mouth.
So also He assumed flesh.
As is right, then, he never prefers the pleasant
to the useful; not even if a beautiful woman were to
entice him, when overtaken by circumstances, by wantonly
urging him: since Joseph's master's wife was not able
to seduce him from his stedfastness; but as she violently
held his coat, divested himself of it,--becoming bare
of sin, but clothed with seemliness of character. For
if the eyes of the master--the Egyptian, I mean--saw
not Joseph, yet those of the Almighty looked on. For
we hear the voice, and see the bodily forms ; but God
scrutinizes the thing itself, from which the speaking
and the looking proceed.
Consequently, therefore, though disease, and accident,
and what is most terrible of all, death, come upon
the Gnostic, he remains inflexible in soul,--knowing
that all such things are a necessity of creation, and
that, also by the power of God, they become the medicine
of salvation, benefiting by discipline those who are
difficult to reform; allotted according to desert,
by Providence, which is truly good.
Using the creatures, then, when the Word prescribes,
and to the extent it prescribes, in the exercise of
thankfulness to the Creator, he becomes master of the
enjoyment of them.
He never cherishes resentment or harbours a grudge
against any one, though deserving of hatred for his
conduct. For he worships the Maker, and loves him,
who shares life, pitying and praying for him on account
of his ignorance. He indeed partakes of the affections
of the body, to which, susceptible as it is of suffering
by nature, he is bound. But in sensation he is not
the primary subject of it.
Accordingly, then, in involuntary circumstances,
by withdrawing himself from troubles to the things
which really belong to him, he is not carried away
with what is foreign to him. And it is only to things
that are necessary for him that he accommodates himself,
in so far as the soul is preserved unharmed. For it
is not m supposition or seeming that he wishes to be
faithful; but in knowledge and truth, that is, in sure
deed and effectual word.[3] Wherefore he not only praises
what is noble, but endeavours himself to be noble;
changing by love from a good and faithful servant into
a friend, through the perfection of habit, which he
has acquired in purity from true instruction and great
discipline.
Striving, then, to attain to the summit of knowledge
(gnosis); decorous in character; composed in mien;
possessing all those advantages which belong to the
true Gnostic fixing his eye on fair models, on the
many patriarchs who have lived rightly, and on very
many prophets and angels reckoned without number, and
above all, on the Lord, who taught and showed it to
be possible for him to attain that highest life of
all,--he therefore loves not all the good things of
the world, which are within

541

his grasp, that he may not remain on the ground, but
the things hoped for, or rather already known, being
hoped for so as to be apprehended.
So then he undergoes toils, and trials, and affections,
not as those among the philosophers who are endowed
with manliness, in the hope of present troubles ceasing,
and of sharing again in what is pleasant; but knowledge
has inspired him with the firmest persuasion of receiving
the hopes of the future. Wherefore he contemns not
alone the pains of this world, but all its pleasures.
They say, accordingly, that the blessed Peter, on
seeing his wife led to death, rejoiced on account of
her call and conveyance home, and called very encouragingly
and comfortingly, addressing her by name, "Remember
thou the Lord." Such was the marriage of the blessed
and their perfect disposition towards those dearest
to them.[1]
Thus also the apostle says, "that he who marries
should be as though he married not,"[2] and deem
his marriage free of inordinate affection, and inseparable
from love to the Lord; to which the true husband exhorted
his wife to cling on her departure out of this life
to the Lord.
Was not then faith in the hope after death conspicuous
in the case of those who gave thanks to God even in
the very extremities of their punishments? For firm,
in my opinion, was the faith they possessed, which
was followed by works of faith.
In all circumstances, then, is the soul of the Gnostic
strong, in a condition of extreme health and strength,
like the body of an athlete.
For he is prudent in human affairs, in judging what
ought to be done by the just man; having obtained the
principles from God from above, and having acquired,
in order to the divine resemblance, moderation in bodily
pains and pleasures. And he struggles against fears
boldly, trusting in God. Certainly, then, the gnostic
soul, adorned with perfect virtue, is the earthly image
of the divine power; its development being the joint
result of nature, of training, of reason, all together.
This beauty of the soul becomes a temple of the Holy
Spirit, when it acquires a disposition in the whole
of life corresponding to the Gospel. Such an one consequently
withstands all fear of everything terrible, not only
of death, but also poverty and disease, and ignominy,
and things akin to these; being unconquered by pleasure,
and lord over irrational desires. For he well knows
what is and what! is not to be done; being perfectly
aware what things are really to be dreaded, and what
not. Whence he bears intelligently what the Word intimates
to him to be requisite and necessary; intelligently
discriminating what is really safe (that is, good),
from what appears so; and things to be dreaded from
what seems so, such as death, disease, and poverty;
which are rather so in opinion than in truth.
This is the really good man, who is without passions;
having, through the habit or disposition of the soul
endued with virtue, transcended the whole life of passion.
He has everything dependent on himself for the attainment
of the end. For those accidents which are called terrible
are not formidable to the good man, because they are
not evil. And those which are really to be dreaded
are foreign to the gnostic Christian, being diametrically
opposed to what is good, because evil; and it is impossible
for contraries to meet in the same person at the same
time. He, then, who faultlessly acts the drama of life
which God has given him to play, knows both what is
to be done and what is to be endured.
Is it not then from ignorance of what is and what
is not to be dreaded that cowardice arises? Consequently
the only man of courage is the Gnostic, who knows both
present and future good things; along with these, knowing,
as I have said, also the things which are in reality
not to be dreaded. Because, knowing vice alone to be
hateful, and destructive of what contributes to knowledge,
protected by the armour of the Lord, he makes war against
it.
For if anything is caused through folly, and the
operation or rather co-operation of the devil, this
thing is not straightway the devil or folly. For no
action is wisdom. For wisdom is a habit. And no action
is a habit. The action, then, that arises from ignorance,
is not already ignorance, but an evil through ignorance,
but not ignorance. For neither perturbations of mind
nor sins are vices, though proceeding from vice.
No one, then, who is irrationally brave is a Gnostic
;[3] since one might call children brave, who, through
ignorance of what is to be dreaded, undergo things
that are frightful. So they touch fire even. And the
wild beasts that rush close on the points of spears,
having a brute courage, might be called valiant. And
such people might perhaps call jugglers valiant, who
tumble on swords with a certain dexterity, practising
a mischievous art for sorry gain. But he who is truly
brave, with the peril arising from the bad feeling
of the multitude before his eyes, courageously awaits
whatever comes. In this way he is distin-

542

guished from others that are called martyrs, inasmuch
as some furnish occasions for themselves, and rush
into the heart of dangers, I know not how (for it is
right to use mild language); while they, in accordance
with right reason, protect themselves; then, on God
really calling them, promptly surrender themselves,
and confirm the call, from being conscious of no precipitancy,
and present the man to be proved in the exercise of
true rational fortitude. Neither, then, enduring lesser
dangers from fear of greater, like other people, nor
dreading censure at the hands of their equals, and
those of like sentiments, do they continue in the confession
of their calling; but from love to God they willingly
obey the call, with no other aim in view than pleasing
God, and not for the sake of the reward of their toils.
For some suffer from love of glory, and others from
fear of some other sharper punishment, and others for
the sake of pleasures and delights after death, being
children in faith; blessed indeed, but not yet become
men in love to God, as the Gnostic is. For there are,
as in the gymnastic contests, so also in the Church,
crowns for men and for children. But love is to be
chosen for itself, and for nothing else. Therefore
in the Gnostic, along with knowledge, the perfection
of fortitude is developed from the discipline of life,
he having always studied to acquire mastery over the
passions.
Accordingly, love makes its own athlete fearless
and dauntless, and confident in the Lord, anointing
and training him; as righteousness secures for him
truthfulness in his whole life.[1] For it was a compendium
of righteousness to say, "Let your yea be yea;
and your nay, nay."[2]
And the same holds with self-control. For it is
neither for love of honour, as the athletes for the
sake of crowns and fame; nor on the other hand, for
love of money, as some pretend to exercise self-control,
pursuing what is good with terrible suffering. Nor
is it from love of the body for the sake of health.
Nor any more is any man who is temperate from rusticity,
who has not tasted pleasures, truly a man of self-con-trol.
Certainly those who have led a laborious life, on tasting
pleasures, forthwith break down the inflexibility of
temperance into pleasures. Such are they who are restrained
by law and fear. For on finding a favourable opportunity
they defraud the law, by giving what is good the slip.
But self-control, desirable for its own sake, perfected
through knowledge, abiding ever, makes the man lord
and master of himself; so that the Gnostic is temperate
and passionless, incapable of being dissolved by pleasures
and pains, as they say adamant is by fire.
The cause of these, then, is love, of all science
the most sacred and most sovereign.
For by the service of what is best and most exalted,
which is characterized by unity, it renders the Gnostic
at once friend and son, having in truth grown "a
perfect man, up to the measure of full stature."[3]
Further, agreement in the same thing is consent.
But what is the same is one. And friendship is consummated
in likeness; the community lying in oneness. The Gnostic,
consequently, in virtue of being a lover of the one
true God, is the really perfect man and friend of God,
and is placed in the rank of son. For these are names
of nobility and knowledge, and perfection in the contemplation
of God; which crowning step of advancement the gnostic
soul receives, when it has become quite pure, reckoned
worthy to behold everlastingly God Almighty, "face,"
it is said, "to face." For having become
wholly spiritual, and having in the spiritual Church
gone to what is of kindred nature, it abides in the
rest of God.

Let these things, then, be so. And such being the
attitude of the Gnostic towards the body and the soul--towards
his neighbours, whether it be a domestic, or a lawful
enemy, or whosoever--he is found equal and like. For
he does not "despise his brother," who, according
to the divine law, is of the same father and mother.
Certainly he relieves the afflicted, helping him with
consolations, encouragements, and the necessaries of
life; giving to all that need, though not similarly,
but justly, according to desert; furthermore, to him
who persecutes and hates, even if he need it; caring
little for those who say to him that be has given out
of fear, if it is not out of fear that he does so,
but to give help. For how much more are those, who
towards their enemies are devoid of love of money,
and are haters of evil, animated with love to those
who belong to them?
Such an one from this proceeds to the accurate knowledge
of whom he ought chiefly to give to, and how much,
and when, and how.
And who could with any reason become the enemy of
a man who gives no cause for enmity in any way? And
is it not just as in the case of God? We say that God
is the adversary of no one, and the enemy of no one
(for He is the Creator of all, and nothing that exists.
is what He wills it not to be; but we assert that the
disobedient, and those who walk not according to His
commandments, are enemies to Him, as being those who
are hostile to His covenant).

543

We shall find the very same to be the case with the
Gnostic, for he can never in any way become an enemy
to any one; but those may be regarded enemies to him
who turn to the contrary path.
In particular, the habit of liberality[1] which
prevails among us is called "righteousness;"
but the power of discriminating according to desert,
as to greater and less, with reference to those who
am proper subjects of it, is a form of the very highest
righteousness.
There are things practised in a vulgar style by
some people, such as control over pleasures. For as,
among the heathen, there are those who, from the impossibility
of obtaining what one sees,[2] and from fear of men,
and also for the sake of greater pleasures, abstain
from the delights that are before them; so also, in
the case of faith, some practise self-restraint, either
out of regard to the promise or from fear of God. Well,
such self-restraint is the basis of knowledge, and
an approach to something better, and an effort after
perfection. For "the fear of the Lord," it
is said, "is the beginning of wisdom."[3]
But the perfect man, out of love, "beareth all
things, endureth all things,"[4] "as not
pleasing man, but God."[5] Although praise follows
him as a consequence, it is not for his own advantage,
but for the imitation and benefit of those who praise
him.
According to another view, it is not he who merely
controls his passions that is called a continent man,
but he who has also achieved the mastery over good
things, and has acquired surely the great accomplishments
of science, from which he produces as fruits the activities
of virtue. Thus the Gnostic is never, on the occurrence
of an emergency, dislodged from the habit peculiar
to him. For the scientific possession of what is good
is firm and unchangeable, being the knowledge of things
divine and human. Knowledge, then, never becomes ignorance
nor does good change into evil. Wherefore also he eats,
and drinks, and marries, not as principal ends of existence,
but as necessary. I name marriage even, if the Word
prescribe, and as is suitable. For having become perfect,
he[6] has the apostles for examples; and one is not
really shown to be a man in the choice of single life;
but he surpasses men, who, disciplined by marriage,
procreation of children, and care for the house, without
pleasure or pain, in his solicitude for the house has
been inseparable from God's love, and withstood all
temptation arising through children, and wife, and
domestics, and possessions. But he that has no family
is in a great degree free of temptation. Caring, then,
for himself alone, he is surpassed by him who is inferior,
as far as his own personal salvation is concerned,
but who is superior in the conduct of life, preserving
certainly, in his care for the truth, a minute image.
But we must as much as possible subject the soul
to varied preparatory exercise, that it may become
susceptible to the reception of knowledge. Do you not
see how wax is softened and copper purified, in order
to receive the stamp applied to it? Just as death is
the separation of the soul from the body, so is knowledge
as it were the rational death urging the spirit away,
and separating it from the passions, and leading it
on to the life of well-doing, that it may then say
with confidence to God, "I live as Thou wishest."
For he who makes it his purpose to please men cannot
please God, since the multitude choose not what is
profitable, but what is pleasant. But in pleasing God,
one as a consequence gets the favour of the good among
men. How, then, can what relates to meat, and drink,
and amorous pleasure, be agreeable to such an one?
since he views with suspicion even a word that produces
pleasure, and a pleasant movement and act of the mind.
"For no one can serve two masters, God and Mammon,"[7]
it is said; meaning not simply money, but the resources
arising from money bestowed on various pleasures. In
reality, it is not possible for him who magnanimously
and truly knows God, to serve antagonistic pleasures.
There is one alone, then, who from the beginning
was free of concupiscence--the philanthropic Lord,
who for us became man. And whosoever endeavour to be
assimilated to the impress given by Him, strive, from
exercise, to become free of concupiscence. For he who
has exercised concupiscence and then restrained himself,
is like a widow who becomes again a virgin by continence.
Such is the reward of knowledge, rendered to the Saviour
and Teacher, which He Himself asked for,--abstinence
from what is evil, activity in doing good, by which
salvation is acquired.
As, then, those who have learned the arts procure
their living by what they have been taught, so also
is the Gnostic saved, procuring life by what he knows.
For he who has not formed the wish to extirpate the
passion of the soul, kills himself. But, as seems,
ignorance is the starvation of the soul, and knowledge
its sustenance.
Such are the gnostic souls, which the Gospel

544

likened to the consecrated virgins who wait for the
Lord. For they are virgins, in respect of their abstaining
from what is evil. And in respect of their waiting
out of love for the Lord and kindling their light for
the contemplation of things, they are wise souls, saying,
"Lord, for long we have desired to receive Thee;
we have lived according to what Thou hast enjoined,
transgressing none of Thy commandments. Wherefore also
we claim the promises. And we pray for what is beneficial,
since it is not requisite to ask of Thee what is most
excellent. And we shall take everything for good; even
though the exercises that meet us, which Thine arrangement
brings to us for the discipline of our stedfastness,
appear to be evil."
The Gnostic, then, from his exceeding holiness,
is better prepared to fail when he asks, than to get
when he does not ask.
His whole life is prayer and converse with God.[1]
And if he be pure from sins, he will by all means obtain
what he wishes. For God says to the righteous man,
"Ask, and I will give thee; think, and I will
do." If beneficial, he will receive it at once;
and if injurious, he will never ask it, and therefore
he will not receive it. So it shall be as he wishes.
But if one say to us, that some sinners even obtain
according to their requests, [we should say] that this
rarely takes place, by reason of the righteous goodness
of God. And it is granted to those who are capable
of doing others good. Whence the gift is not made for
the sake of him that asked it; but the divine dispensation,
foreseeing that one would be saved by his means, renders
the boon again righteous. And to those who are worthy,
things which are really good are given, even without
their asking.
Whenever, then, one is righteous, not from necessity
or out of fear or hope, but from free choice, this
is called the royal road, which the royal race travel.
But the byways are slippery and precipitous. If, then,
one take away fear and honour, I do not know if the
illustrious among the philosophers, who use such freedom
of speech, will any longer endure afflictions.
Now lusts and other sins are called "briars
and thorns." Accordingly the Gnostic labours in
the Lord's vineyard, planting, pruning, watering; being
the divine husbandman of what is planted in faith.
Those, then, who have not done evil, think it right
to receive the wages of ease. But he who has done good
out of free choice, demands the recompense as a good
workman. He certainly shall receive double wages--both
for what he has not done, and for what good he has
done.
Such a Gnostic is tempted by no one except with
God's permission, and that for the benefit of those
who are with him; and he strengthens them for faith,
encouraging them by manly endurance. And assuredly
it was for this end, for the establishment and confirmation
of the Churches, that the blessed apostles were brought
into trial and to martyrdom.
The Gnostic, then, hearing a voice ringing in his
ear, which says, "Whom I shall strike, do thou
pity," beseeches that those who hate him may repent.
For the punishment of malefactors, to be consummated
in the highways, is for children to behold;[2] for
there is no possibility of the Gnostic, who has from
choice trained himself to be excellent and good, ever
being instructed or delighted with such spectacles.[3]
And so, having become incapable of being softened by
pleasures, and never failing into sins, he is not corrected
by the examples of other men's sufferings. And far
from being pleased with earthly pleasures and spectacles
is he who has shown a noble contempt for the prospects
held out in this world, although they are divine.
"Not every one," therefore, "that
says Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of God;
but he that doeth the will of God."[4] Such is
the gnostic labourer, who has the mastery of worldly
desires even while still in the flesh; and who, in
regard to things future and still invisible, which
he knows, has a sure persuasion, so that he regards
them as more present than the things within reach.
This able workman rejoices in what he knows, but is
cramped on account of his being involved in the necessities
of life; not yet deemed worthy of the active participation
in what he knows. So he uses this life as if it belonged
to another,--so far, that is, as is necessary.
He knows also the enigmas of the fasting of those
days[5]--I mean the Fourth and the Preparation. For
the one has its name from Hermes, and the other from
Aphrodite. He fasts in his life, in respect of covetousness
and voluptuousness, from which all the vices grow.
For we have already often above shown the three varieties
of fornication, according to the apostle--love of pleasure,
love of money, idolatry. He fasts, then, according
to the Law, abstaining from bad deeds, and, according
to the perfection of the Gospel, from evil thoughts.
Temptations are applied to him, not for his purification,
but, as we have said, for the good of his neighbours,

545

if, making trial of toils and pains, he has despised
and passed them by.
The same holds of pleasure. For it is the highest
achievement for one who has had trial of it, afterwards
to abstain. For what great thing is it, if a man restrains
himself in what he knows not? He, in fulfilment of
the precept, according to the Gospel, keeps the Lord's
day,[1] when he abandons an evil disposition, and assumes
that of the Gnostic, glorifying the Lord's resurrection
in himself. Further, also, when he has received the
comprehension of scientific speculation, he deems that
he sees the Lord, directing his eyes towards things
invisible, although he seems to look on what he, does
not wish to look on; chastising the faculty of vision,
when he perceives himself pleasurably affected by the
application of his eyes; since he wishes to see and
hear that alone which concerns him.
In the act of contemplating the souls of the brethren,
he beholds the beauty of the flesh also, with the soul
itself, which has become habituated to look solely
upon that which is good, without carnal pleasure. And
they are really brethren; inasmuch as, by reason of
their elect creation, and their oneness of character,
and the nature of their deeds, they do, and think,
and speak the same holy and good works, in accordance
with the sentiments with which the Lord wished them
as elect to be inspired.
For faith shows itself in their making choice of
the same things; and knowledge, in learning and thinking
the same things; and hope, in desiring[2] the same
things.
And if, through the necessity of life, he spend
a small portion of time about his sustenance, he thinks
himself defrauded, being diverted by business.[3] Thus
not even in dreams does he look on aught that is unsuitable
to an elect man. For thoroughly[4] a stranger and sojourner
in the whole of life is every such one, who, inhabiting
the city, despises the things in the city which are
admired by others, and lives in the city as in a desert,
so that the place may not compel him, but his mode
of life show him to be just.
This Gnostic, to speak compendiously, makes up for
the absence of the apostles, by the rectitude of his
life, the accuracy of his knowledge, by benefiting
his relations, by "removing the mountains"
of his neighbours, and putting away the irregularities
of their soul. Although each of us is his[5] own vineyard
and labourer.
He, too, while doing the most excellent things,
wishes to elude the notice of men, persuading the Lord
along with himself that he is living in accordance
with the[6] commandments, preferring these things from
believing them to exist. "For where any one's
mind is, there also is his treasure."[7]
He impoverishes himself, in order that he may never
overlook a brother who has been brought into affliction,
through the perfection that is in love, especially
if he know that he will bear want himself easier than
his brother. He considers, accordingly, the other's
pain his own grief; and if, by contributing from his
own indigence in order to do good, he suffer any hardship,
he does not fret at this, but augments his beneficence
still more. For he possesses in its sincerity the faith
which is exercised in reference to the affairs of life,
and praises the Gospel in practice and contemplation.
And, in truth, he wins his praise "not from men,
but from God,"[8] by the performance of what the
Lord has taught.
He, attracted by his own hope, tastes not the good
things that are in the world, entertaining a noble
contempt for all things here; pitying those that are
chastised after death, who through punishment unwillingly
make confession; having a clear conscience with reference
to his departure, and being always ready, as "a
stranger and pilgrim," with regard to the inheritances
here; mindful only of those that are his own, and regarding
all things here as not his own; not only admiring the
Lord's commandments, but, so to speak, being by knowledge
itself partaker of the divine will; a truly chosen
intimate of the Lord and His commands in virtue of
being righteous; and princely and kingly as being a
Gnostic; despising all the gold on earth and under
the earth, and dominion from shore to shore of ocean,
so that he may cling to the sole service of the Lord.
Wherefore also, in eating, and drinking, and marrying
(if the Word enjoin), and even in seeing dreams,[9]
he does and thinks what is holy.
So is he always pure for prayer. He also prays in
the society of angels, as being already of angelic
rank, and he is never out of their holy keeping; and
though he pray alone, he has the choir of the saints[10]
standing with him.
He recognises a twofold [element in faith], both
the activity of him who believes, and the

546

excellence of that which is believed according to its
worth; since also righteousness is twofold, that which
is out of love, and that from fear. Accordingly it
is said, "The fear of the Lord is pure, remaining
for ever and ever."[1] For those that from fear
turn to faith and righteousness, remain for ever. Now
fear works abstinence from what is evil; but love exhorts
to the doing of good, by building up to the point of
spontaneousness; that one may hear from the Lord, "I
call you no longer servants, but friends," and
may now with confidence apply himself to prayer.
And the form of his prayer is thanksgiving for the
past, for the present, and for the future as already
through faith present. This is preceded by the reception
of knowledge. And he asks to live the allotted life
in the flesh as a Gnostic, as free from the flesh,
and to attain to the best things, and flee from the
worse. He asks, too, relief in those things in which
we have sinned, and conversion to the acknowledgment
of them.[2]
He follows, on his departure, Him who calls, as
quickly, so to speak, as He who goes before calls,
hasting by reason of a good conscience to give thanks;
and having got there with Christ shows himself worthy,
through his purity, to possess, by a process of blending,
the power of God communicated by Christ. For he does
not wish to be warm by participation in heat, or luminous
by participation in flame, but to be wholly light.
He knows accurately the declaration, "Unless
ye hate father and mother, and besides your own life,
and unless ye bear the sign [of the cross] ."[3]
For he hates the inordinate affection: of the flesh,
which possess the powerful spell of pleasure; and entertains
a noble contempt for all that belongs to the creation
and nutriment of the flesh. He also withstands the
corporeal[4] soul, putting a bridle-bit on the restive
irrational spirit: "For the flesh lusteth against
the Spirit."[5] And "to bear the sign of
[the cross]" is to bear about death, by taking
farewell of all things while still alive; since there
is not equal love in "having sown the flesh,"[6]
and in having formed the soul for knowledge.
He having acquired the habit of doing good, exercises
beneficence well, quicker than speaking; praying that
he may get a share in the sins of his brethren, in
order to confession and conversion on the part of his
kindred; and eager to give a share to those dearest
to him of his own good things. And so these are to
him, friends. Promoting, then, the growth of the seeds
deposited in him, according to the husbandry enjoined
by the Lord, he continues free of sin, and becomes
continent, and lives in spirit with those who are like
him, among the choirs of the saints, though still detained
on earth.
He, all day and night, speaking and doing the Lord's
commands, rejoices exceedingly, not only on rising
in the morning and at noon, but also when walking about,
when asleep, when dressing and undressing;[7] and he
teaches his son, if he has a son. He is inseparable
from the commandment and from hope, and is ever giving
thanks to God, like the living creatures figuratively
spoken of by Esaias, and submissive in every trial,
he says, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken
away."[8] For such also was Job; who after the
spoiling of his effects, along with the health of his
body, resigned all through love to the Lord. For "he
was," it is said, "just, holy, and kept apart
from all wickedness."[9] Now the word "holy"
points out all duties toward God, and the entire course
of life. Knowing which, he was a Gnostic. For we must
neither cling too much to such things, even if they
are good, seeing they are human, nor on the other hand
detest them, if they are bad; but we must be above
both [good and bad], trampling the latter under foot,
and passing on the former to those who need them. But
the Gnostic is cautious in accommodation, lest he be
not perceived, or lest the accommodation become disposition.

CHAP. XIII.--DESCRIPTION OF THE GNOSTIC CONTINUED.

He never remembers those who have sinned against
him, but forgives them. Wherefore also he righteously
prays, saying, "Forgive us; for we also forgive."[10]
For this also is one of the things which God wishes,
to covet nothing, to hate no one. For all men are the
work of one will. And is it not the Saviour, who wishes
the Gnostic to be perfect as" the heavenly Father,"[11]
that is, Himself, who says, "Come, ye children,
hear from me the fear of the Lord?"[12] He wishes
him no longer to stand in need of help by angels, but
to receive it from Himself, having become worthy, and
to have protection from Himself by obedience.
Such an one demands from the Lord, and does not
merely ask. And in the case of his brethren in want,
the Gnostic will not ask himself for abundance of wealth
to bestow, but will pray that the supply of what they
need may be furnished to them. For so the Gnostic gives
his prayer to those who are in need, and by his

547

prayer they are supplied, without his knowledge, and
without vanity.
Penury and disease, and such trials, are often sent
for admonition, for the correction of the past, and
for care for the future. Such an one prays for relief
from them, in virtue of possessing the prerogative
of knowledge, not out of vainglory; but from the very
fact of his being a Gnostic, he works beneficence,
having become the instrument of the goodness of God.
They say in the traditions[1] that Matthew the apostle
constantly said, that "if the neighbour of an
elect man sin, the elect man has sinned. For had he
conducted himself as the Word prescribes, his neighbour
also would have been filled with such reverence for
the life he led as not to sin."
What, then, shall we say of the Gnostic himself?
"Know ye not," says the apostle, "that
ye are the temple of God?"[2] The Gnostic is consequently
divine, and already holy, God-bearing, and God-borne.
Now the Scripture, showing that sinning is foreign
to him, sells those who have fallen away to strangers,
saying, "Look not on a strange woman, to lust,"[3]
plainly pronounces sin foreign and contrary to the
nature of the temple of God. Now the temple is great,
as the Church, and it is small, as the man who preserves
the seed of Abraham. He, therefore, who has God resting
in him will not desire aught else. At once leaving
all hindrances, and despising all matter which distracts
him, he cleaves the heaven by knowledge. And passing
through the spiritual Essences, and all rule and authority,
he touches the highest thrones, hasting to that alone
for the sake of which alone he knew.
Mixing, then, "the serpent with the dove,"[4]
he lives at once perfectly and with a good conscience,
mingling faith with hope, in order to the expectation
of the future. For he is conscious of the boon he has
received, having become worthy of obtaining it; and
is translated from slavery to adoption, as the consequence
of knowledge; knowing God, or rather known of Him,
for the end, he puts forth energies corresponding to
the worth of grace. For works follow knowledge, as
the shadow the body.
Rightly, then, he is not disturbed by anything which
happens; nor does he suspect those things, which, through
divine arrangement, take place for good. Nor is he
ashamed to die, having a good conscience, and being
fit to be seen by the Powers. Cleansed, so to speak,
from all the stains of the soul, he knows right well
that it will be better with him after his departure.
Whence he never prefers pleasure and profit to the
divine arrangement, since he trains himself by the
commands, that in all things he may be well pleasing
to the Lord, and praiseworthy in the sight of the world,
since all things depend on the one Sovereign God. The
Son of God, it is said, came to His own, and His own
received Him not. Wherefore also in the use of the
things of the world he not only gives thanks and praises
the creation, but also, while using them as is right,
is praised; since the end he has in view terminates
in contemplation by gnostic activity in accordance
with the commandments.
Thence now, by knowledge collecting materials to
be the food of contemplation, having embraced nobly
the magnitude of knowledge, he advances to the holy
recompense of translation hence. For he has heard the
Psalm which says: "Encircle Zion, and encompass
it, tell upon its towers."[5] For it intimates,
I think, those who have sublimely embraced the Word,
so as to become lofty towers, and to stand firmly in
faith and knowledge.
Let these statements concerning the Gnostic, containing
the germs of the matter in as brief terms as possible,
be made to the Greeks. But let it be known that if
the [mere] believer do rightly one or a second of these
things, yet he will not do so in all nor with the highest
knowledge, like the Gnostic.

CHAP. XIV.--DESCRIPTION OF THE GNOSTIC FURNISHED BY
AN EXPOSITION OF 1 COR. VI. 1, ETC.

Now, of what I may call the passionlessness which
we attribute to the Gnostic (in which the perfection
of the believer, "advancing by love, comes to
a perfect man, to the measure of full stature,"[6]
by being assimilated to God, and by becoming truly
angelic), many other testimonies from the Scripture,
occur to me to adduce. But I think it better, on account
of the length of the discourse, that such an honour
should be devolved on those who wish to take pains,
and leave it to them to elaborate the dogmas by the
selection of Scriptures.
One passage, accordingly, I shall in the briefest
terms advert to, so as not to leave the topic unexplained.
For in the first Epistle to the Corinthians the
divine apostle says: "Dare any of you, having
a matter against the other, go to law before the unrighteous,
and not before the saints? Know ye not that the saints
shall judge the world?"[7] and so on.
The section being very long, we shall exhibit the
meaning of the apostle's utterance by em-

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ploying such of the apostolic expressions as are most
pertinent, and in the briefest language, and in a sort
of cursory way, interpreting the discourse in which
he describes the perfection of the Gnostic. For he
does not merely instance the Gnostic as characterized
by suffering wrong rather than do wrong; but he teaches
that he is not mindful of injuries, and does not allow
him even to pray against the man who has done him wrong.
For he knows that the Lord expressly enjoined "to
pray for enemies."[1]
To say, then, that the man who has been injured
goes to law before the unrighteous, is nothing else
than to say that he shows a wish to retaliate, and
a desire to injure the second in return, which is also
to do wrong likewise himself.
And his saying, that he wishes "some to go
to law before the saints," points out those who
ask by prayer that those who have done wrong should
suffer retaliation for their injustice, and intimates
that the second are better than the former; but they
are not yet obedient,[2] if they do not, having become
entirely free of resentment, pray even for their enemies.
It is well, then, for them to receive right dispositions
from repentance, which results in faith. For if the
truth seems to get enemies who entertain bad feeling,
yet it is not hostile to any one. "For God makes
His sun to shine on the just and on the unjust,"[3]
and sent the Lord Himself to the just and the unjust.
And he that earnestly strives to be assimilated to
God, in the exercise Of great absence of resentment,
forgives seventy times seven times, as it were all
his life through, and in all his course in this world
(that being indicated by the enumeration of sevens)
shows clemency to each and any one; if any during the
whole time of his life in the flesh do the Gnostic
wrong. For he not only deems it right that the good
man should resign his property alone to others, being
of the number of those who have done him wrong; but
also wishes that the righteous man should ask of those
judges forgiveness for the offences of those who have
done him wrong. And with reason, if indeed it is only
in that which is external and concerns the body, though
it go to the extent of death even, that those who attempt
to wrong him take advantage of him; none of which truly
belong to the Gnostic.
And how shall one "judge" the apostate
"angels," who has become himself an apostate
from that forgetfulness of injuries, which is according
to the Gospel? "Why do ye not rather suffer wrong?"
he says; "why are ye not rather defrauded? Yea,
ye do wrong and defraud,"[4] manifestly by praying
against those who transgress in ignorance, and deprive
of the philanthropy and goodness of God, as far as
in you lies, those against whom you pray, "and
these your brethren,"--not meaning those in the
faith only, but also the proselytes. For whether he
who now is hostile shall afterwards believe, we know
not as yet. From which the conclusion follows clearly,
if all are not yet brethren to us, they ought to be
regarded in that light. And now it is only the man
of knowledge who recognises all men to be the work
of one God, and invested with one image in one nature,
although some may be more turbid than others; and in
the creatures he recognises the operation, by which
again he adores the will of God.
"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God?"[5] He acts unrighteously
who retaliates, whether by deed or word, or by the
conception of a wish, which, after the training of
the Law, the Gospel rejects.
"And such were some of you"--such manifestly
as those still are whom you do not forgive; "but
ye are washed,"[6] not simply as the rest, but
with knowledge; ye have cast off the passions of the
soul, in order to become assimilated, as far as possible,
to the goodness of God's providence by long-suffering,
and by forgiveness "towards the just and the unjust,"
casting on them the gleam of benignity in word and
deeds, as the sun.
The Gnostic will achieve this either by greatness
of mind, or by imitation of what is better. And that
is a third cause. "Forgive, and it shall be forgiven
you;" the commandment, as it were, compelling
to salvation through superabundance of goodness.
"But ye are sanctified." For he who has
come to this state is in a condition to be holy, falling
into none of the passions in any way, but as it were
already disembodied and already grown holy without[7]
this earth.
"Wherefore," he says, "ye are justified
in the name of the Lord." Ye are made, so to speak,
by Him to be righteous as He is, and are blended as
far as possible with the Holy Spirit. For "are
not all things lawful to me? yet I will not be brought
under the power of any,"[8] so as to do, or think,
or speak aught contrary to the Gospel. "Meats
for the belly, and the belly for meats, which God shall
destroy,"[9]--that is, such as think and live
as if they were made for eating, and do not eat that
they may live as a consequence, and apply to knowledge
as the primary end. And does he not say that these
are, as it were, the fleshy parts of the holy body?
As a

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body, the Church of the Lord, the spiritual and holy
choir, is symbolized.[1] Whence those, who are merely
called, but do not live in accordance with the word,
are the fleshy parts. "Now" this spiritual
"body," the holy Church, "is not for
fornication." Nor are those things which belong
to heathen life to be adopted by apostasy from the
Gospel. For he who conducts himself heathenishly in
the Church, whether in deed, or word, or even in thought,
commits fornication with reference to the Church and
his own body. He who in this way "is joined to
the harlot," that is, to conduct contrary to the
Covenant becomes another "body," not holy,
"and one flesh," and has a heathenish life
and another hope. "But he that is joined to the
Lord in spirit" becomes a spiritual body by a
different kind of conjunction.
Such an one is wholly a son, an holy man, passionless,
gnostic, perfect, formed by the teaching of the Lord;
in order that in deed, in word, and in spirit itself,
being brought close to the Lord, he may receive the
mansion that is due to him who has reached manhood
thus.
Let the specimen suffice to those who have ears.
For it is not required to unfold the mystery, but only
to indicate what is sufficient for those who are partakers
in knowledge to bring it to mind; who also will comprehend
how it was said by the Lord, "Be ye perfect as
your father, perfectly,"[2] by forgiving sins,
and forgetting injuries, and living in the habit of
passionlessness. For as we call a physician perfect,
and a philosopher perfect, so also, in my view, do
we call a Gnostic perfect. But not one of those points,
although of the greatest importance, is assumed in
order to the likeness of God. For we do not say, as
the Stoics do most impiously, that virtue in man and
God is the same. Ought we not then to be perfect,
as the Father wills? For it is utterly impossible for
any one to become perfect as God is. Now the Father
wishes us to be perfect by living blamelessly, according
to the obedience of the Gospel.
If, then, the statement being elliptical, we understand
what is wanting, in order to complete the section for
those who are incapable of understanding what is left
out, we shall both know the will of God, and shall
walk at once piously and magnanimously, as befits the
dignity of the commandment.

CHAP. XV.--THE OBJECTION TO JOIN THE CHURCH ON ACCOUNT
OF THE DIVERSITY OF HERESIES ANSWERED.

Since it comes next to reply to the objections
alleged against us by Greeks and Jews; and since, in
some of the questions previously discussed, the sects
also who adhere to other teaching give, their help,
it will be well first to clear away the obstacles before
us, and then, prepared thus for the solution of the
difficulties, to advance to the succeeding Miscellany.
First, then, they make this objection to us, saying,
that they ought not to believe on account of the discord
of the sects. For the truth is warped when some teach
one set of dogmas, others another.
To whom we say, that among you who are Jews, and
among the most famous of the philosophers among the
Greeks, very many sects have sprung up. And yet you
do not say that one ought to hesitate to philosophize
or Judaize, because of the want of agreement of the
sects among you between themselves. And then, that
heresies should be sown among the truth, as "tares
among the wheat," was foretold by the Lord; and
what was predicted to take place could not but happen.[3]
And the cause of this is, that everything that is fair
is followed by a foul blot. If one, then, violate his
engagements, and go aside from the confession which
he makes before us, are we not to stick to the truth
because he has belied his profession? But as the good
man must not prove false or fail to ratify what he
has promised, although others violate their engagements;
so also are we bound in no way to transgress the canon
of the Church.[4] And especially do we keep our profession
in the most important points, while they traverse it.
Those, then, are to be believed, who hold firmly
to the truth. And we may broadly make use of this reply,
and say to them, that physicians holding opposite opinions
according to their own schools, yet equally in point
of fact treat patients. Does one, then, who is ill
in body and needing treatment, not have recourse to
a physician, on account of the different schools in
medicine? No more, then, may he who in soul is sick
and full of idols, make a pretext of the heresies,
in reference to the recovery of health and conversion
to God.
Further, it is said that it is on account of "those
that are approved that heresies exist."[5] [The
apostle] calls "approved," either those who
in reaching faith apply to the teaching of the Lord
with some discrimination (as those are called skilful[6]
money-changers, who distinguish the spurious coin from
the genuine by the false

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stamp), or those who have already become approved both
in life and knowledge.
For this reason, then, we require greater attention
and consideration in order to investigate how precisely
we ought to live, and what is the true piety. For it
is plain that, from the very reason that truth is difficult
and arduous of attainment, questions arise from which
spring the heresies, savouring of self-love and vanity,
of those who have not learned or apprehended truly,
but only caught up a mere conceit of knowledge. With
the greater care, therefore, are we to examine the
real truth, which alone has for its object the true
God. And the toil is followed by sweet discovery and
reminiscence.
On account of the heresies, therefore, the toil
of discovery must be undertaken; but we must not at
all abandon [the truth]. For, on fruit being set before
us, some real and ripe, and some made of wax, as like
the real as possible, we are not to abstain from both
on account of the resemblance. But by the exercise
of the apprehension of contemplation, and by reasoning
of the most decisive character, we must distinguish
the true from the seeming.
And as, while there is one royal highway, there
are many others, some leading to a precipice, some
to a rushing river or to a deep sea, no one will shrink
from travelling by reason of the diversity, but will
make use of the safe, and royal, and frequented way;
so, though some say this, some that, concerning the
truth, we must not abandon it; but must seek out the
most accurate knowledge respecting it. Since also among
garden-grown vegetables weeds also spring up, are the
husbandmen, then, to desist from gardening?
Having then from nature abundant means for examining
the statements made, we ought to discover the sequence
of the truth. Wherefore also we are rightly condemned,
if we do not assent to what we ought to obey, and do
not distinguish what is hostile, and unseemly, and
unnatural, and false, from what is true, consistent,
and seemly, and according to nature. And these means
must be employed in order to attain to the knowledge
of the real truth.
This pretext is then, in the case of the Greeks,
futile; for those who are willing may find the truth.
But in the case of those who adduce unreasonable excuses,
their condemnation is unanswerable. For whether do
they deny or admit that there is such a thing as demonstration?
I am of opinion that all will make the admission, except
those who take away the senses. There being demonstration,
then, it is necessary to condescend to questions, and
to ascertain by way of demonstration by the Scriptures
themselves how the heresies failed, and how in the
truth alone and in the ancient Church is both the exactest
knowledge, and the truly best set of I principles (<greek>airesis</greek>)
.[1]
Now, of those who diverge from the truth, some attempt
to deceive themselves alone, and some also their neighbours.
Those, then, who are called (<greek>doxosoFoi</greek>)
wise in their own opinions, who think that they have
found the truth, but have no true demonstration, deceive
themselves in thinking that they have reached a resting-place.
And of whom there is no inconsiderable multitude, who
avoid investigations for fear of refutations, and shun
instructions for fear of condemnation. But those who
deceive those who seek access to them are very astute;
who, aware that they know nothing, yet darken the truth
with plausible arguments.
But, in my opinion, the nature of plausible arguments
is of one character, and that of true arguments of
another. And we know that it is necessary that the
appellation of the heresies should be expressed in
contradistinction to the truth; from which the Sophists,
drawing certain things for the destruction of men,
and burying them in human arts invented by themselves,
glory rather in being at the head of a School than
presiding over the Church?

CHAP. XVI.--SCRIPTURE THE CRITERION BY WHICH TRUTH AND
HERESY ARE DISTINGUISHED.[3]

But those who are ready to toil in the most excellent
pursuits, will not desist from the search after truth,
till they get the demonstration from the Scriptures
themselves.
There are certain criteria common to men, as the
senses; and others that belong to those who have employed
their wills and energies in what is true,--the methods
which are pursued by the mind and reason, to distinguish
between true and false propositions.
Now, it is a very great thing to abandon opinion,
by taking one's stand between accurate knowledge and
the rash wisdom of opinion, and to know that he who
hopes for everlasting rest knows also that the entrance
to it is toilsome "and strait." And let him
who has once received the Gospel, even in the very
hour in which he has come to the knowledge of salvation,
"not turn back, like Lot's wife," as is said;
and let him not go back either to his former life,
which adheres to the things of sense, or to heresies.
For they form the character, not knowing the true God.
"For he that loveth father or mother more than
Me," the Father and Teacher of the truth, who
regenerates and creates anew, and

551

nourishes the elect soul, "is not worthy of Me"--He
means, to be a son of God and a disciple of God, and
at the same time also to be a friend, and of kindred
nature. "For no man who looks back, and puts his
hand to the plough, is fit for the kingdom of God."[1]
But, as appears, many even down to our own time
regard Mary, on account of the birth of her child,
as having been in the puerperal state, although she
was not. For some say that, after she brought forth,
she was found, when examined, to be a virgin.[2]
Now such to us are the Scriptures of the Lord, which
gave birth to the truth and continue virgin, in the
concealment of the mysteries of the truth. "And
she brought forth, and yet brought not forth,"[3]
Says the Scripture; as having conceived of herself,
and not from conjunction. Wherefore the Scriptures
have conceived to Gnostics; but the heresies, not having
learned them, dismissed them as not having conceived.
Now all men, having the same judgment, some, following
the Word speaking, frame for themselves proofs; while
others, giving themselves up to pleasures, wrest Scripture,
in accordance with their lusts.[4] And the lover of
truth, as I think, needs force of soul. For those who
make the greatest attempts must fail in things of the
highest importance; unless, receiving from the truth
itself the rule of the truth, they cleave to the truth.
But such people, in consequence of falling away from
the right path, err in most individual points; as you
might expect from not having the faculty for judging
of what is true and false, strictly trained to select
what is essential. For if they had, they would have
obeyed the Scriptures.[5]
As, then, if a man should, similarly to those drugged
by Circe, become a beast; so he, who has spurned the
ecclesiastical tradition, and darted off to the opinions
of heretical men, has ceased to be a man of God and
to remain faithful to the Lord. But he who has returned
from this deception, on hearing the Scriptures, and
turned his life to the truth, is, as it were, from
being a man made a god.
For we have, as the source of teaching, the Lord,
both by the prophets, the Gospel, and the blessed apostles,
"in divers manners and at sundry times,"[6]
leading from the beginning of knowledge to the end.
But if one should suppose that another origin[7] was
required, then no longer truly could an origin be preserved.
He, then, who of himself believes the Scripture
and voice of the Lord, which by the Lord acts to the
benefiting of men, is rightly [regarded] faithful.
Certainly we use it as a criterion in the discovery
of things.[8] What is subjected to criticism is not
believed till it is so subjected; so that what needs
criticism cannot be a first principle. Therefore, as
is reasonable, grasping by faith the indemonstrable
first principle, and receiving in abundance, from the
first principle itself, demonstrations in reference
to the first principle, we are by the voice of the
Lord trained up to the knowledge of the truth.
For we may not give our adhesion to men on a bare
statement by them, who might equally state the opposite.
But if it is not enough merely to state the opinion,
but if what is stated must be confirmed, we do not
wait for the testimony of men, but we establish the
matter that is in question by the voice of the Lord,
which is the surest of all demonstrations, or rather
is the only demonstration; in which knowledge those
who have merely tasted the Scriptures are believers;
while those who, having advanced further, and become
correct expounders of the truth, are Gnostics. Since
also, in what pertains to life, craftsmen are superior
to ordinary people, and model what is beyond common
notions; so, consequently, we also, giving a complete
exhibition of the Scriptures from the Scriptures themselves,
from faith persuade by demonstration.[9]
And if those also who follow heresies venture to
avail themselves of the prophetic Scriptures; in the
first place they will not make use of all the Scriptures,
and then they will not quote them entire, nor as the
body and texture of prophecy prescribe. But, selecting
ambiguous expressions, they wrest them to their own
opinions, gathering a few expressions here and there;
not looking to the sense, but making use of the mere
words. For in almost all the quotations they make,
you will find that they attend to the names alone,
while they alter the meanings; neither knowing, as
they affirm, nor using the quotations they adduce,
according to their true nature.
But the truth is not found by changing the meanings
(for so people subvert all true teaching), but in the
consideration of what perfectly belongs to and becomes
the Sovereign God, and in establishing each one of
the points demonstrated in the Scriptures again from
similar Scriptures. Neither, then, do they want to
turn to the

552

truth, being ashamed to abandon the claims of self-love;
nor are they able to manage their opinions, by doing
violence to the Scriptures. But having first promulgated
false dogmas to men; plainly fighting against almost
the whole Scriptures, and constantly confuted by us
who contradict them; for the rest, even now partly
they hold out against admitting the prophetic Scriptures,
and partly disparage us as of a different nature, and
incapable of understanding what is peculiar to them.
And sometimes even they deny their own dogmas, when
these are confuted, being ashamed openly to own what
in private they glory in teaching. For this may be
seen in all the heresies, when you examine the iniquities
of their dogmas. For when they are overturned by our
clearly showing that they are opposed to the Scriptures,[1]
one of two things may be seen to have been done by
those who defend the dogma. For they either despise
the consistency of their own dogmas, or despise the
prophecy itself, or rather their own hope. And they
invariably prefer what seems to them to be more evident
to what has been spoken by the Lord through the prophets
and by the Gospel, and, besides, attested and confirmed
by the apostles.
Seeing, therefore, the danger that they are in (not
in respect of one dogma, but in reference to the maintenance
of the heresies) of not discovering the truth; for
while reading the books we have ready at hand, they
despise them as useless, but in their eagerness to
surpass common faith, they have diverged from the truth.
For, in consequence of not learning the mysteries of
ecclesiastical knowledge, and not having capacity
for the grandeur of the truth, too indolent to descend
to the bottom of things, reading superficially, they
have dismissed the Scriptures.[2] Elated, then, by
vain opinion, they are incessantly wrangling, and plainly
care more to seem than to be philosophers. Not laying
as foundations the necessary first principles of things;
and influenced by human opinions, then making the end
to suit them, by compulsion; on account of being confuted,
they spar with those who are engaged in the prosecution
of the true philosophy, and undergo everything, and,
as they say, ply every oar, even going the length of
impiety, by disbelieving the Scriptures,[2] rather
than be removed from the honours of the heresy and
the boasted first seat in their churches; on account
of which also they eagerly embrace that convivial couch
of honour in the Agape, falsely so called.
The knowledge of the truth among us from what is
already believed, produces faith in what is not yet
believed; which [faith] is, so to speak, the essence
of demonstration. But, as appears, no heresy has at
all ears to hear what is useful, but opened only to
what leads to pleasure. Since also, if one of them
would only obey the truth, he would be healed.
Now the cure of self-conceit (as of every ailment)
is threefold: the ascertaining of the cause, and the
mode of its removal; and thirdly, the training of the
soul, and the accustoming it to assume a right attitude
to the judgments come to. For, just like a disordered
eye, so also the soul that has been darkened by unnatural
dogmas cannot perceive distinctly the light of truth,
but even overlooks what is before it.
They say, then, that in muddy water eels are caught
by being blinded. And just as knavish boys bar out
the teacher, so do these shut out the prophecies from
their Church, regarding them with suspicion by reason
of rebuke and admonition. In fact, they stitch together
a multitude of lies and figments, that they may appear
acting in accordance with reason in not admitting the
Scriptures. So, then, they are not pious, inasmuch
as they are not pleased with the divine commands, that
is, with the Holy Spirit. And as those almonds are
called empty in which the contents are worthless, not
those in which there is nothing; so also we call those
heretics empty, who are destitute of the counsels of
God and the traditions of Christ; bitter, in truth,
like the wild almond, their dogmas originating with
themselves, with the exception of such truths as they
could not, by reason of their evidence, discard and
conceal.
As, then, in war the soldier must not leave the
post which the commander has assigned him, so neither
must we desert the post assigned by the Word, whom
we have received as the guide of knowledge and of life.
But the most have not even inquired, if there is one
that we ought to follow, and who this is, and how lie
is to be followed. For as is the Word, such also must
the believer's life be, so as to be able to follow
God, who brings all things to end from the beginning
by the right course.
But when one has transgressed against the Word,
and thereby against God; if it is through becoming
powerless in consequence of some impression being suddenly
made, he ought to see to have the impressions of reasons
at hand. And if it is that he has become "common,"
as the Scripture[3] says, in consequence of being overcome
. the habits which formerly had sway by over him, the
habits must be entirely put a stop to, and the soul
trained to oppose them. And if it appears that conflicting
dogmas draw some away, these must be taken out of the
way,

553

and recourse is to be had to those who reconcile dogmas,
and subdue by the charm of the Scriptures such of the
untutored as are timid, by explaining the truth by
the connection of the Testaments.'
But, as appears, we incline to ideas founded on
opinion, though they be contrary, rather than to the
truth. For it is austere and grave. Now, since there
are three states of the soul--ignorance, opinion, knowledge--those
who are in ignorance are the Gentiles, those in knowledge,
the true Church, and those in opinion, the Heretics.
Nothing, then, can be more clearly seen than those,
who know, making affirmations about what they know,
and the others respecting what they hold on the strength
of opinion, as far as respects affirmation without
proof.
They accordingly despise and laugh at one another.
And it happens that the same thought is held in the
highest estimation by some, and by others condemned
for insanity. And, indeed, we have learned that voluptuousness,
which is to be attributed to the Gentiles, is one thing;
and wrangling, which is preferred among the heretical
sects, is another; and joy, which is to be appropriated
to the Church, another; and delight, which is to be
assigned to the true Gnostic, another. And as, if one
devote himself to Ischomachus, he will make him a farmer;
and to Lampis, a mariner; and to Charidemus, a military
commander; and to Simon, an equestrian; and to Perdices,
a trader; and to Crobytus, a cook; and to Archelaus,
a dancer; and to Homer, a poet; and to Pyrrho, a wrangler;
and to Demosthenes, an orator; and to Chrysippus, a
dialectician; and to Aristotle, a naturalist; and to
Plato, a philosopher: so he who listens to the Lord,
and follows the prophecy given by Him, will be formed
perfectly in the likeness of the teacher--made a god
going about in flesh.[2]
Accordingly, those fall from this eminence who follow
not God whither He leads. And He leads us in the inspired
Scriptures.
Though men's actions are ten thousand in number,
the sources of all sin are but two, ignorance and inability.
And both depend on ourselves; inasmuch as we will not
learn, nor, on the other hand, restrain lust. And of
these, the one is that, in consequence of which people
do not judge well, and the other that, in consequence
of which they cannot comply with right judgments. For
neither will one who is deluded in his mind be able
to act rightly, though perfectly able to do what he
knows; nor, though capable of judging what is requisite,
will he keep himself free of blame, if destitute of
power in action. Consequently, then, there are assigned
two kinds of correction applicable to both kinds of
sin: for the one, knowledge and clear demonstration
from the testimony of the Scriptures; and for the other,
the training according to the Word, which is regulated
by the discipline of faith and fear. And both develop
into perfect love. For the end of the Gnostic here
is, in my judgment, two-fold,--partly scientific contemplation,
partly action.
Would, then, that these heretics would learn and
be set right by these notes, and turn to the sovereign
God! But if, like the deaf serpents, they listen not
to the song called new, though very old, may they be
chastised by God, and undergo paternal admonitions
previous to the Judgment, till they become ashamed
and repent, but not rush through headlong unbelief,
and precipitate themselves into judgment.
For there are partial corrections, which are called
chastisements, which many of us who have been in transgression
incur, by falling away from the Lord's people. But
as children are chastised by their teacher, or their
father, so are we by Providence. But God does not punish,
for punishment is retaliation for evil. He chastises,
however, for good to those who are chastised, collectively
and individually.
I have adduced these things from a wish to avert
those, who are eager to learn, from the liability to
fall into heresies, and out of a desire to stop them
from superficial ignorance, or stupidity, or bad disposition,
or whatever it should be called. And in the attempt
to persuade and lead to the truth those who are not
entirely incurable, I have made use of these words.
For there are some who cannot bear at all to listen
to those who exhort them to turn to the truth; and
they attempt to trifle, pouring out blasphemies against
the truth, claiming for themselves the knowledge of
the greatest things in the universe, without having
learned, or inquired, or laboured, or discovered the
consecutive train of ideas,--whom one should pity rather
than hate for such perversity.
But if one is curable, able to bear (like fire or
steel) the outspokenness of the truth, which cuts away
and burns their false opinions. let him lend the ears
of the soul. And this will be the case, unless, through
the propensity to sloth, they push truth away, or through
the desire of fame, endeavour to invent novelties.
For those are slothful who, having it in their power
to provide themselves with proper proofs for the divine
Scriptures from the Scriptures themselves, select only
what contributes to their own pleasures. And those
have a craving for glory who voluntarily evade, by
arguments of a diverse sort, the things delivered by
the blessed apostles and teachers, which are wedded
to inspired words; opposing the divine tradition by
human teach-

554

ings, in order to establish the heresy.[1] For, in truth,
what remained to be said--in ecclesiastical knowledge
I mean--by such men, Marcion, for example, or Prodicus,
and such like, who did not walk in the right way? For
they could not have surpassed their predecessors in
wisdom, so as to discover anything in addition to what
had been uttered by them; for they would have been
satisfied had they been able to learn the things laid
down before.
Our Gnostic then alone, having grown old in the
Scriptures, and maintaining apostolic and ecclesiastic
orthodoxy in doctrines, lives most correctly in accordance
with the Gospel, and discovers the proofs, for which
he may have made search (sent forth as he is by the
Lord), from the law and the prophets. For the life
of the Gnostic, in my view, is nothing but deeds and
words corresponding to the tradition of the Lord. But
"all have not knowledge. For I would not have
you to be ignorant, brethren," says the apostle,
"that all were under the cloud, and partook of
spiritual meat and drink;"[2] clearly affirming
that all who heard the word did not take in the magnitude
of knowledge in deed and word. Wherefore also he added:
"But with all of them He was not well pleased."
Who is this? He who said, "Why do you call Me
Lord, and do not the will of My Father?"[3] That
is the Saviour's teaching, which to us is spiritual
food, and drink that knows no thirsty the water of
gnostic life. Further it is said, knowledge is said
"to puff up." To whom we say: Perchance seeming
knowledge is said to puff up, if one[4] suppose the
expression means "to be swollen up." But
if, as is rather the case, the expression of the apostle
means, "to entertain great and true sentiments,"
the difficulty is solved. Following, then, the Scriptures,
let us establish what has been said: "Wisdom,"
says Solomon, "has inflated her children."
For the Lord did not work conceit by the particulars
of His teaching; but He produces trust in the truth
and expansion of mind, in the knowledge that is communicated
by the Scriptures, and contempt for the things which
drag into sin, which is the meaning of the expression
"inflated." It teaches the magnificence
of the wisdom implanted in her children by instruction.
Now the apostle says, "I will know not the speech
of those that are puffed up, but the power;"[5]
if ye understand the Scriptures magnanimously (which
means truly; for nothing is greater than truth). For
in that lies the power of the children of wisdom who
are puffed up. He says, as it were, I shall know if
ye rightly entertain great thoughts respecting knowledge.
"For God," according to David, "is known
in Judea," that is, those that are Israelites
according to knowledge. For Judea is interpreted "Confession."
It is, then, rightly said by the apostle, "This
Thou, shall not commit adultery, Thou shall not steal,
Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment,
it is comprehended in this word, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself."[6]
For we must never, as do those who follow the heresies,
adulterate the truth, or steal the canon of the Church,
by gratifying our own lusts and vanity, by defrauding
our neighbours; whom above all it is our duty, in the
exercise of love to them, to teach to adhere to the
truth. It is accordingly expressly said, "Declare
among the heathen His statutes," that they may
not be judged, but that those who have previously given
ear may be converted. But those who speak treacherously
with their tongues have the penalties that are on record?

CHAP. XVII.--THE TRADITION OF THE CHURCH PRIOR TO THAT
OF THE HERESIES.

Those, then, that adhere to impious words, and dictate
them to others, inasmuch as they do not make a right
but a perverse use of the divine words, neither themselves
enter into the kingdom of heaven, nor permit those
whom they have deluded to attain the truth. But not
having the key of entrance, but a false (and as the
common phrase expresses it), a counterfeit key (<greek>antikleis</greek>),
by which they do not enter in as we enter in, through
the tradition of the Lord, by drawing aside the curtain;
but bursting through the side-door, and digging clandestinely
through the wall of the Church, and stepping over the
truth, they constitute themselves the Mystagogues[8]
of the soul of the impious.
For that the human assemblies which they held were
posterior to the Catholic Church[9] requires not many
words to show.
For the teaching of our Lord at His advent, beginning
with Augustus and Tiberius, was completed in the middle
of the times of Tiberius.[10]

555

And that of the apostles, embracing the ministry
of Paul, ends with Nero. It was later, in the times
of Adrian the king, that those who invented the heresies
arose; and they extended to the age of Antoninus the
eider, as, for instance, Basilides, though he claims
(as they boast) for his master, Glaucias, the interpreter
of Peter.
Likewise they allege that Valentinus was a hearer
of Theudas.[1] And he was the pupil of Paul. For Marcion,
who arose in the same age with them, lived as an old
man with the younger[2] [heretics]. And after him Simon
heard for a little the preaching of Peter.
Such being the case, it is evident, from the high
antiquity and perfect truth of the Church, that these
later heresies, and those yet subsequent to them in
time, were new inventions falsified [from the truth].
From what has been said, then, it is my opinion
that the true Church, that which is really ancient,
is one, and that in it those who according to God's
purpose are just, are enrolled.[3] For from the very
reason that God is one, and the Lord one, that which
is in the highest degree honourable is lauded in consequence
of its singleness, being an imitation of the one first
principle. In the nature of the One, then, is associated
in a joint heritage the one Church, which they strive
to cut asunder into many sects.
Therefore in substance and idea, in origin, in pre-eminence,
we say that the ancient and Catholic[4] Church is alone,
collecting as it does into the unity of the one faith--which
results from the peculiar Testaments, or rather the
one Testament in different times by the will of the
one God, through one Lord--those already ordained,
whom God predestinated, knowing before the foundation
of the world that they would be righteous.
But the pre-eminence of the Church, as the principle
of union, is, in its oneness, in this surpassing all
things else, and having nothing like or equal to itself.
But of this afterwards.
Of the heresies, some receive their appellation
from a [person's] name, as that which is called after
Valentinus, and that after Marcion, and that after
Basilides, although they boast of adducing the opinion
of Matthew [without truth]; for as the teaching, so
also the tradition of the apostles was one. Some take
their designation from a place, as the Peratici; some
from a nation, as the [heresy] of the Phrygians; some
from an action, as that of the Encratites; and some
from peculiar dogmas, as that of the Docetae, and that
of the Harmatites; and some from suppositions, and
from individuals they have honoured, as those called
Cainists, and the Ophians; and some from nefarious
practices and enormities, as those of the Simonians
called Entychites.

CHAP. XVIII--THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN CLEAN AND UNCLEAN
ANIMALS IN THE LAW SYMBOLICAL OF THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN
THE CHURCH, AND JEWS, AND HERETICS.

After showing a little peep-hole to those who love
to contemplate the Church from the law of sacrifices
respecting clean and unclean animals (inasmuch as thus
the common Jews and the heretics are distinguished
mystically from the divine Church), let us bring the
discourse to a close.
For such of the sacrifices as part the hoof, and
ruminate, the Scripture represents as clean and acceptable
to God; since the just obtain access to the Father
and to the Son by faith. For this is the stability
of those who part the hoof, those who study the oracles
of God night and day, and ruminate them in the soul's
receptacle for instructions; which gnostic exercise
the Law expresses under the figure of the rumination
of the clean animal. But such as have neither the one
nor the other of those qualities it separates as unclean.
Now those that ruminate, but do not part the hoof,
indicate the majority of the Jews, who have indeed
the oracles of God, but have not faith, and the step
which, resting on the truth, conveys to the Father
by the Son. Whence also this kind of cattle are apt
to slip, not having a division in the foot, and not
resting on the twofold support of faith. For "no
man," it is said, "knoweth the Father, but
he to whom the Son shall reveal Him."[5]
And again, those also are likewise unclean that
part the hoof, but do not ruminate.[6] For these point
out the heretics, who indeed go upon the name of the
Father and the Son, but are in-

556

capable of triturating and grinding down the clear declaration
of the oracles, and who, besides, perform the works
of righteousness coarsely and not with precision, if
they perform them at all. To such the Lord says, "Why
will ye call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which
I say?"[1]
And those that neither part the hoof nor chew the
cud are entirely unclean.
"But ye Megareans," says Theognis," are
neither third
nor fourth, Nor twelfth, neither in reckoning nor in
number," "but as chaff which the wind drives
away from the face of the earth,"[2] and as a
drop from a vessel."[3]
These points, then, having been formerly thoroughly
treated, and the department of ethics having been sketched
summarily in a fragmentary way, as we promised; and
having here and there interspersed the dogmas which
are the germs[4] of true knowledge, so that the discovery
of the sacred traditions may not be easy to any one
of the uninitiated, let us proceed to what we promised.
Now the Miscellanies are not like parts laid out,
planted in regular order for the delight of the eye,
but rather like an umbrageous and shaggy hill, planted
with laurel, and ivy, and apples, and olives, and figs;
the planting being purposely a mixture of fruit-bearing
and fruitless trees, since the composition aims at
concealment, on account of those that have the daring
to pilfer and steal the ripe fruits; from which, however,
the husbandmen, transplanting shoots and plants, will
adorn a beautiful park and a delightful grove.
The Miscellanies, then, study neither arrangement
nor diction; since there are even cases in which the
Greeks on purpose wish that ornate diction should be
absent, and imperceptibly cast in the seed of dogmas,
not according to the truth, rendering such as may read
laborious and quick at discovery. For many and various
are the baits for the various kinds of fishes.
And now, after this seventh Miscellany of ours,
we shall give the account of what follows in order
from another commencement.[5]

ELUCIDATIONS

I.

(Deception, cap. ix. p. 538.)

More and more, the casuistry exposed by Pascal in
the Provincial Letters[1] becomes an important subject
for the investigation of Americans. Nobody who has
any pretensions to scholarship can afford to be ignorant
of these letters; for they belong to literature, and
not merely to theology. But they belong in a sense
to the past; not that "the Society of Jesus "has
ceased to maintain all that Pascal has exposed, and
to practise even worse, but that the Latin churches
have, since the days of Pascal, been formally subjected
to a system of casuistry, in some respects superficially
reformed, but in all other respects radically bad,
and corrosive to society. In Pascal's day this casuistry
could only be charged upon individuals, and upon societies
and communities: the Roman Church everywhere adopted
it, but was not formally committed to it. But in the
system of Liguori this corrupt morality has been made
authoritative and dogmatic; so that in all the Latin
churches it becomes the base of the confessional. For
moral purposes, it is the Bible of the millions who
resort to their confessors and "directors."
These remarks, however, are here introduced merely
with reference to the morals of Clement with regard
to truth.[2]
I have briefly indicated, in the footnotes, the
points which are to be noted in forming an opinion
of our author's conceptions of this vital principle.
They seem to me conformed to the Gospel; to the teachings
of Him who allows no hair-splittings, but says, "Let
your yea be yea,

557

and your nay, nay." But, as the text stood in the
Edinburgh translation, it did injustice to Clement
in one passage, which I have modified. It reads, "He
(the Gnostic) both thinks and speaks the truth, unless,
at any time, medicinally, as a physician for the safety
of the sick, he may lie, or tell an untruth."
To this, Clement adds significantly, "according
to the Sophists." That is to say, our author tolerates
the Christian who has not got beyond the Sophists with
respect to benevolent deceptions. As killing is not
always murder, so some, even among stem moralists,
have maintained that deception by word of mouth is
not always lying. This is the extent to which Clement
tolerates sophistry, and he goes on to demand the practice
of truth in Gospel terms. Now, thank God, the English
word "lie" is always infamous; and there
is nothing like it, in this respect, in other languages.
The Sophists themselves did not so understand the Greek
word (<greek>yeudos</greek>), when they
apply it to the benevolent deception of a physician,
or to the untruths used benevolently with the insane.
Nothing infamous attaches to the French word mensonge
when used for what are deemed "innocent deceptions."
With this whole system of sophistry I have no patience
at all; but, in justice to the Sophists, let us not
make them worse than they were. They did not understand
that such deceptions were lies. Hence, for "lie,"
I have used the word deceive, correcting a needless
rendering of the text, and one to which Clement should
not be made to extend even a contemptuous toleration.
In this respect, the holy Jeremy Taylor and Dr.
Johnson go further than Clement, and seem to allow
that benevolent deceptions may be innocent. Sanderson
sustains a sterner morality, and is more generally
accepted. Liguori's system is verbally as strong as
the Gospel itself: lying is a mortal sin, and never
justifiable. But, when he comes to the definition of
a lie, it is made so feeble, that the worst liar that
ever lived need never resort to it. He may practise
all manner of subterfuge, and even perjury, without
telling a lie. As, e.g., if he points up his sleeve,
while he swears that he did not see the criminal there,
he tells no lie: it is the business of the judge and
jury to watch his fingers, etc.

II.

(True Gnostic, cap. x. p. 540, note 1.)

This unfortunate word Gnostic hides the force of
Clement's teaching, throughout this work. Here he virtually
expounds it, and we see that it refers even more to
the heart than to the head. It carries with it the
conduct of life by knowledge; i.e., by "the true
Light which lighteneth every man that cometh into the
world." (See p. 607, footnote.)

III.

(The Scriptures, cap. xvi. p. 550, note 3.)

The Primitive Fathers never dream of anything as
dogma which cannot be proved by the Scriptures, save
only that the apostolic traditions, clearly proved
to be such, must be referred to in proving what is
Holy Scripture. It is not possible to graft on this
principle the slightest argument for any tradition
not indisputably apostolic, so far as the de fide is
concerned. Quod semper is the touchstone, in their
conceptions, of all orthodoxy. No matter who may teach
this or that, now or in any post-apostolic age, their
test is Holy Scripture, and the inquiry, Was it always
so taught and understood?

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